All for Our Country
by Lyoko Native
Summary: Sequel to 'Live Free or Die.' The season of cold changes approaches quickly. Many things change in the mountains of West Virginia besides the season. A war between humans and creatures draws closer.
1. Chapter 1

**All for Our Country**

_Chapter One: Humane Arrow_

Aelita watched her mother teach, but her attention drifted to the window as petite snowflakes hit the window and piled up on the seal outside. It was beautiful, but she wasn't allowed to go outside because of her sickness. She smiled slightly, because for one time in her life, she didn't mind. Aelita wouldn't be able to bring herself to spoil the white beauty if she tried.

Her attention turned from the window to the boy who looked like Jeremy. He sat in the back of the room, and though he tried to pretend like he wasn't paying attention, his eyes told otherwise. His hair was longer—Aelita expected that—and he was human. He wore contacts—you could tell from the pale blue ring around his iris—and a school uniform. There were some differences, of course, but nothing major, and Aelita had full confidence that it was the elf she had met in France.

A bell rang, and it knocked Aelita from the trance she had fallen into. "Okay, don't forget to turn in last night's homework if you haven't already." Her mother said as she dismissed her class. The students stood up and immediately began talking, and Aelita watched each face.

When her eyes locked on the human who looked like Jeremy, she stood up and tried to catch up with him. Aelita wore a magenta dress with straps like overalls. Underneath she wore a pink sweater with a hood and pom-poms that she let hang out in front of her. She wore magenta boots with white accents. She tapped the boy's shoulder. "Hey there, stranger!" She greeted when he turned.

He seemed confused, but he said, "Hey." He turned around again to talk to the many other students standing around with him. The school uniform was pretty much the same for boys and girls—white button-up shirt, teal tie, beige sweater, black penny loafers—except boys wore beige slacks while girls wore beige pleated skirts. Whispers came from the students. 'Who is she? She's not wearing a uniform. She looks so familiar, though. I swear I saw her not too long ago.'

"Um, I was being sarcastic." Aelita said as she tapped on his shoulder again. "Don't pretend like you don't know who I am."

The boy looked at her. "I'm not pretending." He said, crossing his arms. "Stop pretending like you know me."

"I do know you, though!" Aelita protested, and she continued, "You were the first person I ever met that came from the outside world."

The boy looked at her for a moment. "You're a freak." He finally concluded.

Aelita was hurt for a moment. As she opened her mouth to say something, a girl in a school uniform reached for the boy's hand and pulled him away from Aelita. "C'mon, Jason, we've got to get to class or you'll get detention again." The entire crowd migrated away and the remaining students whispered. 'Isn't that Mrs. Schaffer's daughter? I don't know. I can't believe she tried to convince Jason that she knew him. Who doesn't know him? Maybe she does. We all know that he likes girls…'

"Hey, are you Aelita?" A girl asked Aelita from behind, and the pink haired girl turned to look at its owner. The girl had golden red hair, golden eyes* and freckles. Her curly hair had been pushed behind her ears and Aelita could see the gold hoops that hung from them. "Your mom sent me to find you."

Aelita nodded. "Yeah, that's me."

The girl giggled. "'Yeah, that's me.' That's the cutest little accent you've got there." She extended her hand, and Aelita shook it politely. "My name's Suzette Powers, but everyone I know just calls me Suzy." Suzy smiled, and she looked Aelita over carefully. "Who were you talking to?"

"Jeremy. Well, I know that's who I was talking to you, but some other student called him 'Jason' before she pulled him away." Aelita shrugged.

"Jason Chambers, I guess, if some girl pulled him away." Suzy shrugged. She motioned for Anthea's classroom. "Well, I've got your mom's class now, and I've never been late for any class before, so we may as well go back in." Suzy almost skipped back to Anthea's class, and Aelita smiled before following.

* * *

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…" Jeremy watched his plant for sixty seconds for a reaction. Generally, his small vials of liquid took about sixty seconds to inflict a reaction on plants. When sixty seconds ticked away, he groaned and recorded that nothing had happened. He flicked on the light and placed his head sharply on the table he was working at.

Lyna patted her brother's back before looking at the plant. She raised an eyebrow, blinked, and looked again. "Uh, Jeremy?" She asked, and when her brother didn't respond, she pulled on his elfin ear. "Hey, Einstein, I think your plant is sweating!"

"What?" Jeremy asked as he looked up. The elves sat there watching the plant for a few seconds before the elf boy added, "Well, I suppose that's _something_." He scratched it down on his clipboard. He reached out and wiped a drop of plant sweat off the plant. He held it close to his face.

"Whatever you do, don't lick it!" Lyna recoiled, and Jeremy looked at her. There was a brief period of silence before she shouted, "Don't lick it!" Jeremy held his finger out near Lyna's face. She jumped up and walked backwards. "_Ew!_ Keep that away from me! Do you know where that's been?"

"Sure I do! It's been inside a plant!" Jeremy announced.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Lyna put her hands on her hips. The shouting attracted the attention of Yumi, Ulrich, Odd and Gus, who were sitting on the couch near the other side of the room. "Now get rid of that!"

Jeremy shrugged and wiped his hand on a paper towel near the light. As he looked back at the shimmering leaves of his experimental plant, he noticed the leaves were the same green color as Aelita's eyes, and the sparkling parts looked like her eyes after she cried…

Jeremy crossed his arms on his desk and placed his chin in the area that his arms didn't cover. He flicked the light off and sulked in the dark. Odd saw that and called out, "Einstein, I thought that you and I agreed that if you were going to act emo, you had to sulk in the designated emo corner!"

"Shut up, Odd!" Jeremy snapped. Odd shrugged.

* * *

"Mrs. Schaffer, do you mind if I eat lunch with Aelita in here?" Suzy poked her head in with her lunch. Suzy's hair reached down past her shoulders, and she had pulled it back accordingly.

"Sure, Suzy, go ahead." Anthea smiled and Aelita pushed two desks so they faced each other.

As the redhead sat down, Aelita grabbed the lunch her mother had packed her. "You were talking about earlier that you knew Jason from before… where was that?" Suzy asked as the pink haired girl sat down. She looked down at her salad and picked at it.

"Well, he said his name was Jeremy back then, and it was in France." Aelita said, opening her lunch. "He had some sort of debt with my family and we met while he was repaying that. He helped us pack and then left after that."

"Oh, wow. I can't say that I ever overheard him telling anyone about that." Suzy looked up from her salad. "But he does speak French, so I don't doubt that…"

Aelita shrugged. "He was an elf, too, and so I think he may be in disguise…"

"What? Okay, listen, Aelita—elves don't exist." Suzy explained. "And even if they did, Jason isn't one. He's way too much of a jerk."

"Oh, I doubt that. He was always nice to me."

"You also thought he was an elf!" Suzy exclaimed. "Trust me. He's not the kind of guy you want to be around for long."

"Why not?"

Suzy looked at Aelita, and she blushed. "I… trust me." There was a pause. "So, uh, how do you like West Virginia?"

"It's really pretty." Aelita smiled.

"Yeah. My sisters and I used to love to go out and skate on the ice this time of year. It's still autumn, by the way."

"I know. Winter doesn't start until December 21st. But it's a winter wonderland out there…"

"I know!"

The conversation stopped there. Aelita remembered how Suzy had said something about her sisters, and after a few seconds, she asked, "Where are your sisters now?"

"Huh?"

"I asked about your sisters…"

"Oh. Um, well, we were put into foster care a few years back, and it was sort of hard on all of us. I had an older sister and a younger one. The younger one ran away from our foster home and after that, the grief became too much for my older sister and she killed herself."

Aelita's eyes opened wider. She remembered seeing Puck die, and she'd seen the dying doppelganger of her father. She couldn't understand why anyone would want to kill themselves. "Suzy, I'm sorry…"

"Oh, don't be! It's not your fault, but I appreciate your sympathies." Suzy said, and she added, "I've got class with Jason after lunch. If it's alright with your mom, you can come with me."

Aelita looked to Anthea, who rolled her eyes before nodding. "Sure!"

* * *

The two girls watched the teacher explain the 'proper form of the bow and arrow.' He had a bow and arrow in hand, and once he had finished explaining, he began to instruct the students to get into their pre-determined groups. They were to take turns and practice shooting the arrows. As if by pure coincidence, Suzy had been placed into Jason's group. Aelita stood with her as she took her stance with the bow. Suzy shot three arrows and the two sat down. "This is the third time this week that he's had us in these groups and practicing this."

"Well, it's good to know, I suppose." Aelita shrugged. "I wouldn't know."

"You're technically in my group. You want a turn?" Suzy asked.

"Good lord, no! I was half asleep during the instructions!" Aelita said, laughing. "I would get it all wrong, and, besides—my weapon of choice is a baseball bat!" Aelita laughed harder, but Suzy didn't. "You, um, you had to be there." The pink haired girl laughed.

"Oh." Suzy raised her eyebrow. Aelita watched as Jason took his turn. All three of his arrows landed on target in the bull's eye. "Damn, he's good at that."

Jason, who had apparently overheard her, smirked. "That's the result of hunting with a bow in arrow since I was old enough to hold it still, Powers."

Suzy stuck out her tongue, and she curled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. "See? Jerk. And he's a hunter."

"What's so bad about hunters?" Aelita asked, curling her ankles up next to her thighs in a lady-like fashion.

"Nothing, I guess, except that they kill poor defenseless little animals." Suzy shrugged. "Besides, I'm vegan, so I don't eat anything with a face. Or used to have a face. Or came from something with a face. I don't even eat those weird fruits you find sometimes that _look_ like they have a face!"

Aelita laughed. "Well, it sounds like you've got _that_ figured out."

"Oh, no, not nearly as figured out as I seem." Suzy stood to take her second turn.

* * *

Aelita looked up to the stars later that night. They twinkled brightly as the snow fell, and she couldn't help but wonder where the snow came from. Her thoughts wandered from the sky to Suzy, and then her sisters, her older sister's suicide, Puck's murder, and then to Laurelei. The mere thinking of her name made Aelita shudder, and she muttered, "Why think of her now? You haven't seen her in forever…"

Like many of the people she'd met, Aelita had only known Laurelei for a short time, but she already hated her. 'Laurelei is not the kind of person to be jealous of.' Lyna had said that, and while she knew it was true, it wracked in Aelita's very being. She couldn't even tell why she was jealous…

Aelita hated it when her thoughts became hateful. It made her feel strange, and she didn't like it.

She had changed from her clothes back to her pajamas. She wore a black shirt with a high, tight collar that covered most of her neck underneath her nightgown. She closed her eyes, and she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"This is our first king, your ancestor." Puck explained to Aelita, and she looked at the painting carefully. His hair was brown and it stuck out all over the place, but he was within no doubt human. Next to him stood a woman with golden brown hair, and she, too, was human. They had, even in the painting, a regal and commanding presence. "His queen, also your ancestor, had a friend who was a powerful witch. The witch blessed your family with the powers they have, and she made it so every human following our first Human King's lineage would possess these powers."

Aelita looked around. The hall she stood in was large and made of stone, and on the east wall, there was a seemingly endless row of paintings. North, two statues stood by the entrance, one an elfin knight, the other a dragon guarding treasure. "Where am I, Puck?"

Puck laughed. "Inside your memories of your castle, my lady. Do you remember walking down this hallway with Yumi and me? It was something you were all too familiar with as a child."

Silhouettes of the small girl Aelita recognized as herself and two others formed. One was Puck, and at this point he was much taller than both at his side, and the other was the little girl Aelita had seen in the vision Amaterasu had given her. She assumed it was Yumi as a small child. "Mister Puck, where are we?" Aelita's small silhouette asked.

"Why, we are in the Hall of Those Passed. It immortalizes your family and provides an unchanging timeline of them." Puck said, and the two small girls ran up and stared at the paintings. "One day, my young lady, you will be here as well, along with your husband."

"Wow!" The silhouette of Yumi gasped. "You're going to be a queen, Aelita!"

Small Aelita smiled. "And I want to be the best queen there's ever been!" She took a wide and determined stance. She thought for a moment. "But I need a husband, too, don't I?" She shrugged after Puck nodded meekly. "Yumi, you'll be my husband, right?" Small Aelita asked naively.

"Sure!" Small Yumi smiled. "Of course I'll be your husband!"

As the small girls began to chatter away and fade, Puck placed his palm on his head. "I'm afraid it doesn't quite work that way." He said as he, too, faded.

The real Aelita couldn't help but smile. "That's so sweet." She murmured as she turned her attention back to Puck.

"Our second king was actually the youngest son of our first king. His older brothers died in battle during a war on Earth." Puck explained. "His wife was seven years older than him and had been promised to his eldest brother. They did, however, get along smashingly."

Puck pointed a few paintings down the row. "But I brought you here to tell you of our fifth pair of royals. The queen was actually the daughter of the previous royals, and that was the first time that happened." Puck walked closer to the painting. "But she discovered some amazing things about the powers you and your family possess. Depending on the way you speak to creatures, and sometimes humans not of your bloodline, you can push your will over theirs. It had been done in the past, but people thought it was because they were royalty that disobedience did not occur.

"She also discovered that wings could be summoned from those of your bloodline who have wings marked on their backs, and that the injuries of others could be healed by those in your bloodline by holding their hand to the wound." Puck admired the royal pair for a moment before he turned to Aelita. "You see, before this queen, the royal family believed they could only move things around with their minds and create illusions to protect themselves. She proved them wrong. In fact, this queen inspired those later on to experiment with their powers to see what _else_ they could find…"

Aelita looked closely to the woman. Her hair was golden and wavy, and her eyes were a pristine purple. "What was her name?"

"Clarissa. The powers had gone for a long time unnamed, but they named it after her later." Puck's eyes brightened, as if talking of Queen Clarissa had lifted his spirits.

"My powers are called 'Clarissa?'" Aelita asked, looking to the elf skeptically.

"What? No." Puck shook his head. "Clarissa was called 'Clare' by everyone who knew her well. Her son was consulted about the name later, and it is believed he said, 'Kaliwanagan,' or, 'Clarity.' Roughly translated, of course." Puck shrugged. "It may not sound very… unique, but your bloodline was both loved and feared, and their powers were certainly something that many believed were clear for all to see…"

"Clarity, huh?" Aelita muttered, and Puck nodded. "That's great and all, Puck, but I can't use them. Even if I could use them, I wouldn't know how to, anyway."

"Balahibo." Puck said confidently, and he created with his hands the position that creates birds in shadow puppet shows.

"What?" Aelita asked, not understanding.

"Balahibo. Ito ay pakawalan ang iyong mga pakpak." Puck repeated what he had said with more added on, creating a shadow puppet butterfly.

"No… no, I don't understand, Puck." Aelita said. Puck grew smaller until be became the size of his doll form, and he became replaced by his fabric form. Aelita caught the doll form of Puck and the area around her changed. The corners filled with cobwebs and dust, the statues became dirty and broken in many places, the forest Aelita could see from the windows became dark and ominous and the paintings became faded. A man with dark hair and pale skin entered the hall.

He spotted her, and he pointed. The man barred his sharp teeth and shouted, "Ang isang tao? Ano ang ginagawa niya dito?" He charged for her, and Aelita couldn't move. When he reached her, he ran right through her, and Aelita faded away.

* * *

She sat up quickly. The sun was rising when she looked out her window, and her heart was racing. Aelita felt as if she was going to pass out, but she simply held her hand to her heart and waited for it to slow. As it began to, she heard a thump from outside her window. She looked out it again, the human girl saw nothing, but when she opened the window, she noticed an arrow lodged in the wood next to it. Aelita took the arrow and found a piece of paper tied around it. She took the paper and read what was written on it.

_Tomorrow. 11:00 P.M. Meet me in the clearing next to the frozen-over pond near the zip line. –J_

Aelita didn't need to be told twice.

* * *

*Um… yeah. I tried to picture her with other eye colors, but somehow my mind kept going back to gold… I drew her once, actually, before I gave her a name, and she totally looked like a 'Suzy.' So, yeah, it's just my 'character vision,' I suppose.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two: Dishonest Mistake_

Anthea looked to her daughter and Suzy. They had become fast friends, and Anthea liked that Aelita was getting to know the redhead. Suzy most likely didn't know her own secret, but Anthea did. Her golden eyes said all that the pink haired woman needed to know, and her eyes narrowed as she thought for a moment. "Suzy, if it's alright with your mom, do you want to come over and spend the night? It is Friday, after all." Anthea smiled, and Aelita smiled back to her. It was an honest smile, and Anthea hoped Aelita didn't think she was intruding.

Suzy became flustered. It wasn't often she was asked to spend the night, let alone by an adult and not even considering the adult was also her teacher. "Um, I guess that's fine." Suzy shrugged, and she thought for a moment. "I'll call her during passing period." Normally, Suzy would point out that her 'mom' was her foster mother, but she didn't bother. Anthea knew, and she didn't want to spoil a good thing.

A bell rang, and it was so unexpected, all three in the classroom flinched. "Speaking of which, that's right now." Anthea smiled. "Okay, go to class."

Suzy stood and tossed her lunch away. She motioned for Aelita to follow, and the pink haired girl looked to her mother before she did. Anthea, too, motioned for Aelita to follow the redhead, and Aelita kissed her mother's cheek before she left. "I need to stop by my locker so I can call my mom and get her okay on me spending the night." Suzy told Aelita, and she nodded. As they walked down the hall, Aelita spotted Jason, who smiled and gave her a head bob to let her know that he'd noticed her. She smiled back and half-waved. "Oh, hey, Aelita, don't forget that Jason is bad news, alright?" Suzy warned as she opened her locker door.

* * *

Suzy had fallen asleep. Actually, Suzy had more of passed out, but she didn't wake up when Aelita nudged her shoulder. She huffed, because Suzy staying asleep had not been her primary goal. Aelita had wanted to bring her redheaded friend to the area Jeremy/Jason had told her to meet him, because she was sure that he was going to tell her about his disguise.

But it didn't matter if Suzy came or not. Aelita was still going. She opened her door and slipped on her boots. The pink haired girl grabbed her coat and quietly opened the front door and closed it again. Aelita walked down the steps of her front porch and looked around at the snow. It was still falling. _One would think that the sky would run out of this freezing cold white stuff, _Aelita thought, but she simply shoved her hands into her pockets and walked towards the forest.

Quite frankly, Aelita didn't know if Jeremy/Jason had been referring to the forest or not. She'd assumed that he meant the forest because it was near her home. Obviously he knew where she lived or the arrow wouldn't have been at her window. Aelita found the zip line, and she followed it with her eyes up the mountain. The snow became dense, and what lay further up the mountain was unseen.

As she looked around, she found the pond Jeremy/Jason had mentioned. Sure enough, there was a clearing next to it, and Aelita ran into it. Not only was she not accustomed to running through a forest, there was also massive amount of snow on the ground. She was short of breath very soon.

"Hey, you made it." A voice called from behind her. She turned, seeing Jason—Jason, she knew, was Jeremy in disguise, but she also knew he'd most likely prefer to be called 'Jason' when he appeared human—walking towards her. "I was afraid that you'd chicken out."

"I'm not the kind of person who'd give up on you easily, 'Jason.'" Aelita smiled, crossing her arms. She'd said 'Jason' differently than the rest of her sentence, and she put it in quotation marks made by her fingers. "So, why'd you want me here?"

"Well, I want to talk to you, and I want to show you something that's here, too." Jason shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat. "First of all, I swear to God that I've never seen you before in my life."

"_Sure. _And I'm the queen of England." Aelita teased.

"Um…" Jason looked at her, his face drawing a blank. "I heard Powers call you Aelita. That's your name, isn't it, and not Elizabeth?"

"Yes, but you knew that. Is there someone around that prevents you from acting like yourself?" She rolled her eyes.

He smirked. "No, I guess not." He walked over to a tree and showed her a rope ladder. "Okay, follow me." Jason climbed up the rope ladder.

"Alright." She shrugged and walked over to the tree. Aelita grabbed the ladder and climbed up. The first thing that she noticed was how unbelievably warm it was inside. She looked around, and she realized it was a tree house. There were pictures tapped to the walls, but it was too dark for her to see any details. "Wow. It's so warm up here." She commented as she removed her coat. "Why is that?"

"I don't know. Heat rises, I guess." Jason shrugged. He, too, removed his coat. Underneath he wore a white long sleeved shirt and a blue v-necked tee-shirt. He also wore skinny jeans and blue sneakers. "I found this a few weeks ago."

Aelita folded her arms on the windowsill and looked out at the forest as the snow fell. It was beautiful, but she wished it would stop. She stood up straight to look at Jason, but she kept on hand on the windowsill—which was more of a square cut out of the side of the tree house—as she did so. "Well, if you found it, why are we here? It's not yours."

"Aelita, look at this place! It's been abandoned for years!" Jason said, and he sat down on a pallet. It seemed displaced there, as if someone had dragged it in after the tree house had been abandoned. The sheets on it didn't match the bean bag chairs that had obviously been in there before the pallet. The bean bag chairs had dust completely caking them, while the pallet was lacking dust. "Nobody's going to care if we hang up here for a while."

"No, I don't think we should." Aelita said, crossing her arms to prove her point. "It isn't right."

"In case you haven't noticed, this is the twenty-first century." Jason said, and he stood. He walked closer to Aelita, and when she tried to slink away while feeling the walls, he blocked her on both sides with his arms. "Nobody cares about right or wrong anymore."

"Back up, back up, back up, back up, back up…" Aelita muttered, trying her hardest to get away from Jason as he moved closer. She lifted her leg and kicked him in the gut. "Okay, that is _so_ close enough!"

"Why, you little _bitch!_" Jason shouted, and Aelita rushed down the ladder. As she turned to run, she ran into a girl with golden red hair and gold eyes. Aelita almost cried with relief when she saw Suzy. Suzy had grabbed her parka and slipped on her snow boots, but she, like Aelita, stood in the snow wearing her pajamas. They were warm pajamas, too—heavy cream-colored fabric decorated with pink double cherries. They buttoned up with pink buttons, and a pink stripe went along the collar. Suzy had tucked the hem of her pajama pants into her boots.

"Aelita! Was that Jason I heard up there?" Suzy asked, and when Aelita nodded, she scolded her. "Didn't I tell you that dude was bad news?"

"I know, but I think the Xanadu might have control of his mind! He isn't acting like himself!" Aelita protested, and she grabbed Suzy's hand to pull her with her as she ran. The redhead couldn't help but think that her friend was one of those people who obsess about conspiracy theories.

"Did he get all up in your personal space and tell you that nobody cared about right or wrong anymore?" Suzy asked. Aelita nodded again. "He's acting like himself, then. He's probably mad because you're the only girl smart enough not to give him his way. Good job, by the way."

"What exactly _is_ his way, Suzy?" Aelita asked, no hint of sarcasm apparent in her voice whatsoever.

Suzy paused. "You'd hate it."

Aelita looked at her, but she tore her eyes away and started pushing back the bare branches of the forest surrounding the clearing. Suzy followed her example. "How did you know where to find me?"

"Well, I woke up and you were gone, but I wasn't too concerned about you until I found the note. I knew where he wanted you to meet him because he told _me_ to meet him in the same spot a few weeks ago." Suzy explained, and she added meekly, "It was before I met you, and that's why I know you'd hate it."

Aelita frowned. Not because she was mad but because she'd stumbled onto one of those conversations she didn't understand. She pushed back branches to find that there was no where left for the two to run. They'd reached a cliff.

Suzy looked down the side of the cliff. "Damn. That is a long way down." Aelita looked down as well, and the fog below kept her from seeing the bottom. But she knew that it had to be a long way down, like Suzy said.

"You know what they say—'it's a long way to the top.'" Aelita shrugged. "That obviously means that it's a long way to the bottom, too." Suzy smiled weakly at Aelita's comment. She knew that the pink haired girl was right, but she also knew that she did not want to find that out personally.

Jason pushed his way through the trees, holding a bow and arrow in one hand and a holster for the extra arrows in the other. After slinging the holster over his shoulder, he pointed an arrow at the girls. "End of the road, bitches."

Aelita looked between Jason and the cliff. She turned to face out over the cliff side and grabbed Suzy's hand. She shuddered, and as she kept Suzy's hand in hers, the pink haired girl held her arms out to either side. Aelita closed her eyes and let herself fall off the edge of the cliff.

Suzy screamed bloody murder after Aelita did so.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three: She Flies with Her Own Wings_

Aelita opened her eyes slightly as the girls fell. For a minute, the pink haired girl wondered what she was doing and was convinced that she was going to die. She'd not saved Jeremy, and Aelita almost cried when that passed through her head. She'd been so focused on saving herself and Suzy that she didn't bother to think about Jeremy. Or Jason. Whoever he was. Aelita had, the day before, questioned why anyone would want to kill themselves, and there she was, falling to her self-inflicted doom. She felt even worse when she realized Suzy was going to die, too, and she'd dragged her to a death the redhead could have avoided.

As she prepared to die, Aelita remembered why she had really jumped off the cliff. Puck had told her about the wings those in her bloodline could summon, and Aelita had planned to do so.

The only problem was that she had no idea how.

Something within her called out. "_Balahibo…!_" She muttered, and Aelita felt the wing grow out from her back. She re-directed herself upwards, laughing triumphantly as she did so. "Suzy! I can fly! _I can fly!_" Aelita smiled wildly as she spun the redhead around. Aelita looked to her wings and admired the pink feathers they had.

She'd dreamed once of flying free when she was young. She'd dreamed of being a bird and flying in the sky, of skimming the clouds with her wings as she looked over the land. If it could soar, she would admire it, and she longed to be in the sky.

She finally was.

"Yes! You can fly!" Suzy managed. "Now fly away before Jason shoots an arrow at us!" Suzy begged, clinging close to the pink haired girl with wings.

On cue, an arrow whizzed by. Suzy screamed, unstable already. Aelita tightened her grip on Suzy and flew back towards the cliff, flying over Jason's head. Aelita closed her eyes and laughed on the inside. "So much for gravity, huh? I can defy it so!" Aelita laughed.

"Yeah, that's great! How about you defy stupidity and avoid that tree?" Suzy barked. Aelita opened her eyes and swerved. "Close one." The redhead sighed.

"Look, nobody likes a backseat flier, Suzy." Aelita complained. Aelita felt something sharp pierce her left wing. She screeched in pain, and she began to lose altitude. Aelita rammed into a tree, and the two teen girls landed harshly in the snow. "Are you alright?" Aelita asked, sitting up in the snow.

"Yeah, fine." Suzy sat up, her knees resting in the snow. "What about you? You sounded like you were in pain."

"I think Jason's arrow might have actually hit my wing." Aelita shivered, coatless in the snow. As if to prove her point, the snow soaked up some of the blood seeping from her wing.

"Dear god," The redhead muttered when she saw the snow. She helped her friend up and they walked until they saw a house.

"Maybe whoever lives there can help us," Aelita said hopefully.

"Maybe whoever lives there can kill us," Suzy said skeptically.

"Oh, come on. We don't have much of a choice."

"Sure we do. You can fly us back to your place and then we can call the cops."

"First of all, I can't fly with this arrow stuck in my wing. Second, nobody will believe that an eighth grade boy could hit a flying girl with a bow and arrow. They won't even believe he could hit a hawk with a bow and arrow!"

"But, Aelita—"

"No buts! I promise that they won't hurt us, okay?"

"But, Aelita—"

"Don't you trust me, Suzy?"

Suzy looked to her injured friend, impressed that Aelita could use her signature line against her. "Yeah, I trust you." The teens walked up the steps, Aelita using Suzy as a human crutch, and the redhead rang the doorbell. The door opened a bit, and someone looked out.

The door closed again, and the teens heard a sound like sliding. The door opened once again. "May I help you girls?" A woman stood in the doorway. She had caramel-colored eyes and light brown skin, but her hair was unseen because of an orange hat. She wore an oversized orange tee-shirt, blue jeans and orange socks.

"Um, yes, my friend has been injured by an arrow and we need help…" Suzy said.

"Oh, dear. Please come in." The woman opened the door wider and let the two girls enter. When the woman saw Aelita's wings, her light brown face flushed and she murmured, "Lord Almighty…" She removed her hat, and her caramel-colored braid fell down to hang by her shoulders. Not only that, but her elf ears were revealed. Aelita noticed how similar the elfin woman looked to Lyna, and when she glanced to her human friend, she didn't seem surprised. The elf woman held her hat nervously over her heart with both hands, like a peasant would do in old movies about royalty.

"Are you an actress? They did a really good job on your fake elf ears; they look totally real." Suzy smiled.

The woman looked to Suzy strangely. "I'm not an actress." She said. "My name's Kya. Who are you?"

"I'm Aelita Schaffer and this is Suzy Powers." Aelita introduced herself.

Kya opened her mouth to say something, but she was interrupted by a boy's voice coming from behind a door. "Hey, Mom, have you seen—" The door opened and a blond elf boy with blue eyes and glasses stood in the doorway. When he noticed the teen girls in the living room, his eyes brightened and he called out, "Aelita!" The elf boy rushed forward. Suzy stepped between him and her pink haired friend.

"Okay, jerk, back _away_ from the winged chick!" Suzy commanded. Aelita muttered Suzy's name, but the redhead shouted over her, "No, okay? This is a totally lame disguise! Though I am impressed on how he got downstairs. Anyway, the minute I move he's going to grab you and try to rape you again!"

The elf boy wasted no time in shouting, "I'm going to try to do _**what now**_ again?"

Suzy smacked him across the face to silence him. "Watch! When I pull on his ear, it'll come off!" Suzy said, grabbing one of the elf boy's ears and pulling on it. It didn't work, so she reinforced her first hand with the other. Suzy yanked it, and then pulled on it again with one foot pushing on his thigh. "Wow, that's really on there good." She sighed before yanking it again.

The elf boy sighed. "Look, you can pull on my ear all you want, but I'm telling you, it won't come off." When Suzy continued to yank it, he smacked her hand away and yelled, "That's not removable!"

Suzy rolled her eyes. "What, do you expect me to stand here and believe that you're a real elf?" The elf nodded. "Oh, please! Come off it, Jason!"

"Who the fuck is Jason?" The elf asked.

Aelita watched as the two argued. She was confused, and she looked out the window. Down the mountain a bit, she could see a figure with a bow and several arrows hiking up, following the footprints left by Suzy and Aelita. She looked back to the elf, and then to the figure. "Um, Suzy?" Aelita said, pointing to the figure.

Suzy squinted to look out to the figure. "What the hell? That's Jason!" The redhead looked to the elf and asked, "Who are _you_, then?"

"Jeremy." The elf said, crossing his arms. "Aelita, will you please tell your friend I'm an elf? I don't think I can handle having her yank on my ear again." He rubbed his ear to prove his point.

Aelita ignored his request and ran to him, embracing the elf she had missed so much. Suddenly, she said, "Jeremy, I can fly!"

"Implied by the wings." Jeremy smiled.

"So, wait a second," Suzy asked, looking Jeremy over. "They _do_ look an awful lot alike." Her train of thought was off-track for a second when she said that, but she asked, "So, then you're that dude Aelita told me about…"

"I guess so… I wasn't there when she told you, so I have no clue what she said." Jeremy shrugged.

"_Jesus Christ!_ You're real!" Suzy gasped. Aelita could see in her eyes that Suzy was moments away from fainting. As she began to lose her balance, Kya grabbed Suzy's shoulder.

"Jeremy, Aelita's hurt." Kya told him, and the elf boy looked the human girl over. He noticed the arrow in her wing, and he blinked.

Aelita noticed his shocked look and said, "Remember when Suzy mentioned Jason? Well, he shot me with an arrow." She tried her best to stretch her wing out so Jeremy could see the full extent of the wound. She managed to hold it for a few seconds, but the pain made her wing recoil.

Jeremy's eyebrow twitched from anger. He huffed, but he reached out for Aelita's arm and gently pulled on it so she would sit down. "Okay, this might hurt." He warned her as he grabbed the body of the arrow near the point that had penetrated her wing. He snapped the tip off, and Aelita flinched, her wings being new and therefore sensitive. "I'm so sorry!" He apologized, and Aelita waved him off with a smile. He thought for a moment, slammed his foot down on her toe, waited for a scream of pain and then yanked the remaining part of the arrow out.

"Why did you do that?" Aelita asked, closing her eyes to hold back tears of pain.

Jeremy waved the arrow in front of her face. Aelita looked at it, and Jeremy noticed the blood rolling from her eyes. "You're crying blood, Aelita," He announced, and Aelita wiped a bloody tear away.

"Huh. Y'know, I think I just found the connection." She said, and the door Jeremy had come through opened.

"Hey, Jeremy did you—" Lyna began as she walked into the living room. She noticed Aelita and greeted her warmly with, "Hi, Aelita!" She turned back to her brother and continued, "Did you get my chips? You promised me that we'd watch lacrosse after we watched soccer, and soccer's over."

"You guys are watching sports like that in winter? At nearly midnight?" Kya asked, placing Suzy gently on the couch.

"No, we recorded them on tape earlier in the year when Jeremy was comatose and we've just now gotten around to watching it." Lyna explained. "You and I both know I can't watch lacrosse without my potato chips!" The teen elf girl complained to her brother, hands rested on her hips.

"Um, excuse me, Lyna, but don't I get a hello hug?" Aelita demanded, opening her arms wide. Lyna smiled and hugged her, then wiped a bloody tear from the human girl's eye in a motherly way.

"When did you grow wings?" Lyna asked while Jeremy nudged her away to heal the wound left by the arrow.  
"Oh, not too long ago." Aelita would have shrugged but she didn't so Jeremy could finish healing the wound. "Probably about fifteen minutes or so now."

"I'd put money on the fact that you probably don't know how to use them, but I'm broke right now." Lyna managed after a few seconds.

Aelita smiled, and Jeremy finished healing the wound. "Okay, how does that feel?" He asked, and Aelita ran her fingers over the place the wound had been.

"It tingles, but I guess that's to be expected." She shrugged, and she fluffed her wings, making a satisfying sound. Aelita smiled and fluffed them again.

"Okay, stop doing that." Jeremy said, gently pushing Aelita's wing from his face. "You're getting feathers in my face."

"Sorry," Aelita shrugged.

Lyna smiled at the two, but her face became serious when she asked, "What are you doing here? I know you said that you were moving, but…"

"Mommy and I moved down the mountain, just before the forest starts." Aelita said, sitting down next to Suzy as she dozed. She watched silently for a moment, and then added, "It's so quiet here."

Suzy woke up slowly, and she sat up. She looked from Aelita to Jeremy to Lyna and then to Kya, and though she seemed surprised once more, she didn't faint again. She muttered something to herself, and when she seemed done, Jeremy asked, "Are you guys runaways or something? It's really late to be out hiking, and I doubt you would want to with all this snow around."

Aelita said 'no' while Suzy said 'yes,' and then Suzy explained, "Aelita got this note that told her to meet someone in a clearing, and she went, but as it turns out it was from Jason and he had intentions to rape her but then she managed to get away. I found the note and went looking for her, and then I found her escaping from him." Suzy pushed back her hair and removed her coat. "He cornered us at a cliff and then Aelita jumped off it, pulling me with her, and I was pretty sure we were going to die until she grew wings and started to fly. Jason struck her wing with an arrow; she crashed into a tree and then landed in the snow. We saw your house and she promised me that you'd help us, but she didn't know who lived here."

"I didn't need the play-by-play…" Jeremy muttered.

"I'm such an idiot!" Aelita sighed loudly before placing her head on her knees. Suzy patted her back, and when she noticed the arrow was gone and had not left a wound, she muttered the word 'magic' to herself.

Lyna and Jeremy looked to each other. "Before you ask any more questions, first ask yourself if you really want to know." Lyna warned her brother. "I'm going to get my chips." She walked away, but returned several seconds later with a bag of potato chips.

Kya looked out the window. "Well, I don't see anyone outside anymore. Whoever was following you seems to have left." The elf woman pushed loose strands of hair from her face. "Does your mother know you're here?"

"No," Aelita sat up enough to look at Kya, and she then added, "She was asleep when I left."

Suzy reached into her coat pocket and handed Aelita a plastic box. "Do you know your home phone number?"

"Yes, I think so." Aelita said, taking the box from Suzy. "What does this have to do with it?"

Suzy sighed. "Push these buttons in the order of your home phone number then hit the green button. After you do that, hold it up to your ear."

Aelita did so, and soon after, her eyes brightened and she called out, "Mommy! I can hear your voice through this little box! That's ingenious!" She paused again. "Suzy lent me this little box and I can hear your voice through it! And you can hear me! That's neat!" Aelita stopped talking long enough so her mother could say something long-winded. "We…uh, went out for a walk, Mommy, at eleven. To see the sights of West Virginia at night. But, um, then I… fell and hurt myself, and we found this house up in the mountains. You'll never guess who lives there! Guess!"

Suzy smiled as Aelita waited excitedly for her mother to guess. Her face fell suddenly. "You guessed it," Aelita announced unenthusiastically. "Anyway, Jeremy tended to my wound after he pulled the arrow out—" Aelita flushed at her slip of tongue, and it sounded like her mother was panicking on the other end of the line. "Well, Mommy, the arrow _did_ cause me to fall and hurt myself. On the bright side, I can fly!"

Her redheaded friend laughed. Suzy knew Aelita was strange. She had since Aelita first told her about elves. But to her surprise, Aelita had been telling the truth. Suzy wondered about the relationship between Aelita and Jeremy. She looked around to converse with him, but he'd vanished. "Um, no, I can't fly with my wing injured the way it is, even if Jeremy did heal it. And the storm's too great right now for us to walk down the mountain. Suzy and I will be back tomorrow morning, I guess." Aelita continued. "Okay, I love you, too, Mommy. Bye." Aelita took the phone away from her ear. "How do I turn it off now?" She asked Suzy, who took it and hit the red button.

"So, we're camping out here?" Suzy asked, placing her cell phone back in her coat pocket. Aelita nodded, and they heard the door open and shut. When they looked to it, they saw Jeremy and Lyna standing at the door, holding it shut and wearing heavy coats—Jeremy's blue and Lyna's red. There was a sound like something was trying to flatten the house, and it lasted for several minutes. The room grew dark in that time, and when it was over, Suzy asked, "Was that an avalanche?"

Jeremy and Lyna looked to each other. "Yes," Jeremy nodded finally.

* * *

As Aelita proceeded to tell her mother what had happened, Kya looked out the window once more. "Oh. I seem to have spoken too soon. You see, he's right there." She pointed out the figure to Lyna and Jeremy. "Do you two want this or should I take care of it?"

Jeremy grabbed his coat from the closet, and Lyna looked to her mother and shrugged. "I guess we have this one." Lyna said, taking her coat and pulling it over her head. Both of the elfin teens' coats pulled over their heads and they had faux fur surrounding the hoods, trims of the sleeves and the hems. "We'll be back shortly." Lyna added, picking up a sign and the hammer next to it.

When they went outside, Jeremy took the sign and hammer and started to hammer the sign into the snow. Lyna silently helped the figure out of the snow he'd fallen through. She looked to her brother and then the boy she'd helped and she noticed they looked very similar. The boy looked to both the elves—their hoods hid the fact they were elfin—and he asked, "Um, excuse me, but did you see a girl with pink hair and wings or the redheaded girl she was traveling with around here? I've lost them."

Jeremy tensed up, Lyna could tell, but neither of them said anything. The boy waited for them to respond, but when they didn't, he shouted, "Hey! Did you hear me? I asked you a question!" Jeremy stepped back and handed Lyna the hammer. The sign said 'No Yelling.' The boy looked at it and then back to the elves. "Will you two just tell me which way they went?" The boy shouted.

Lyna looked to the boy and then to her brother. "Will you do the honors of reminding him why we advise hikers not to yell around here, brother?" Lyna asked Jeremy, being careful not to use his name.

"Of course, sister." Jeremy responded. He stood a few feet in front of the boy and took a stance. "You might cause an avalanche." Jeremy said, and Lyna created a whip of fire. She swung it and melted snow above their house, and Jeremy moved his hands down closer to the boy, both his palms facing the other. Snow started to roll down the mountain, and the elves ran back inside before it covered the door.

* * *

A/N: Man. This took a long time. I hope it's good. Jeremy and Aelita have reunited. Suzy's discovered elves. Aelita's discovered cell phones. Yes, it's a good day all around. Unless you're Jason. He's having a bad day all around. Stay turned!

P.S: By the way, the second part is what happened while Aelita was talking to Anthea over the phone.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four: Down the Mountain_

"You guys didn't have to come. It's much brighter outside than it was last night, and I found my way around just fine then." Aelita said, looking to Jeremy, Lyna and Odd. Suzy looked from Jeremy and then to Odd nervously, and she walked a bit faster. Jeremy had loaned Aelita his coat for the trip down, seeing as how she left her own in the tree house Jason had brought her to.

Lyna skipped as much as she could, and she smiled. "It's okay. We haven't seen you in, like, forever, and besides, the avalanche last night could've hit what's-his-face and we need to make sure he's, y'know, _still alive_…" Lyna shrugged and stuffed her hands into her pockets. Her winter clothes—she was wearing them, but it was, in fact, still autumn—were similar to her autumn clothes, but they seemed thicker and she wore her red coat over them. Jeremy and Odd, too, wore clothes similar to their autumn clothes but thicker. Odd wore his purple coat, but Jeremy wore a lighter jacket since he loaned his to Aelita. "Right, Jeremy?" Lyna asked, turning to her brother.

"I don't see why we actually have to go find him…" Jeremy muttered to himself. "He was stupid enough to start yelling in the first place…" The elf boy folded his arms. Odd noticed that and copied him. "Don't do that, Odd."

Odd shrugged. "Whatever," Odd continued to copy Jeremy.

Lyna laughed. "Well, you know what they say…" She smirked triumphantly as she said, "Cat man see, cat man do." She laughed hysterically at her pun, crossing her arms over her knees.

Odd, too, laughed, and Aelita giggled, but Suzy and Jeremy rolled their eyes. Suzy blinked as she noticed something at the bottom of the mountain. She ran down, and she knocked away snow. When she saw what lay beneath the heap of snow, she huffed. "You guys want the good news or the bad news?"

"Good news," Aelita said, rushing down behind Suzy, the magical creatures on her heels.

"The good news is I found Jason," Suzy said, stepping aside so the others could see the human lying in the snow. "The bad news is he's breathing."

"How is that bad news?" Odd asked, and Suzy stared at him. He raised his paws in defense, and he added, "Look, I don't know who this guy _is_, so don't glare at me like that…"

Jeremy walked down in front of Suzy and forced open Jason's eye. He noticed the contact over his iris, and he poked his eye to remove it. Instead of his eye remaining the deep blue color, Jason's iris was revealed to be gold like Suzy's eyes. "Heh. What do you know? A Passage Knight." Jeremy muttered.

"A what?" Suzy crossed her arms and stared at the elf.

"A Passage Knight. They're from the world of creatures, but they're also human, like the royal family." Jeremy said, and a blank was drawn on every face besides his. "Oh, come on! Did none of you read the Xanadu's handout?"

"The what's handout?" Suzy asked.

"I was never in the Xanadu…" Odd said, and Aelita pointed to him and nodded. "Not really, anyway. I didn't get a handout."

"Too many words, not enough pictures and way too little action-y history." Lyna shrugged.

Jeremy face-palmed himself. "A Passage Knight guards the towers in the world of creatures. They're impossible to tell from other humans when they're in the world of creatures, but when they come to Earth, their iris turn gold." The elf boy explained, and Suzy shivered. "You're one, too, Suzy."

"Aren't knights, y'know, supposed to be noble and all that?" Suzy asked defensively. "Trust me. Jason is anything but noble. Neither am I! I'm an orphan! My mother killed my father! She's in jail! My younger sister ran away and my older sister committed suicide!" She was shuddering. "I'm totally messed up…"

"Like I said, they're human." Jeremy said, and Aelita and Lyna gave Suzy a girl hug. "Just like everything else on this planet, they aren't perfect."

Suzy shuddered again, but she shook it off. Okay. He's alive. Let's go." She ordered, and Aelita paused.

"Hold on for a second you guys," Aelita said, and she rushed off. As the other four watched Aelita run off, Jeremy looked up to a snow covered tree. He focused on the snow and forced it off the tree and onto Jason.

"_Oh!_" Lyna cried out, and she curled up her fist and offered it to her brother. "Knuckle touch!" She said, and Jeremy hit her fist with his.

After the elves did so, Aelita ran back, her coat in hand. "Okay. I'm ready." The five walked and talked, but Suzy seemed to be in a different place.

Aelita opened the door to her house and Anthea heard her come in. She rushed over and hugged her daughter, and she said, "Oh, my god! Are you two alright?"

"Yes, Mommy, we're fine." Aelita said, embracing her mother. Anthea forced her around and looked at her wings. She waved her hand over them and they sunk back into her back. "Oh, wow! How'd you do that?"

"Simple. I'll tell you later." Anthea said, patting Aelita's head in a motherly way before standing and saying, "Thanks for bringing her back. I was so worried after I heard the avalanche last night…"

The creatures smiled, and Odd said, "It's no problem, Aunt Anthea. We've got plenty of creature power to make sure princess here makes it home safe and sound every time she goes exploring." Odd smiled, and Lyna rolled her eyes, but said nothing.

"Odd, my sister's worried about you. She got word from Delmas that you'd gone missing." Anthea said sharply to her nephew. "Thanks again. You guys can go now."

That had not been a response that the creatures had been hoping for. "Um, actually, I was hoping—" Lyna began, but Anthea interrupted her.

"You creatures may go now." Anthea ordered, and the three creatures stiffened before leaving.

Aelita watched them sadly, and Jeremy paused before he left. "Bye, Aelita! See you soon!" He called out before shutting the door behind him.

Aelita looked up to her mother, hurt, but Anthea had looked away. "Are you girls hungry?" She asked, and Aelita looked to Suzy before saying anything.

Suzy shrugged. "No, my foster mom will be here soon…"

* * *

The next day, Suzy watched her foster mother, Grace, put away groceries. She picked up a frozen pizza and smiled. "Hey, Grace, can I make this for breakfast?" Suzy asked, and Grace nodded.

"Wait until I'm finished with the groceries, though," Grace broke Suzy's enthusiasm with her condition. When she finished, Suzy opened the pizza box and placed it on a cookie sheet before placing it in the pre-heated oven. As she waited for it to finish, Grace looked to her and asked, "What's up with the early morning pizza craving?"

"I dunno. I just wanted pizza, that's all…" Suzy shrugged, and she heard the timer go off. She opened the oven and pulled out the pizza, but when she smelled it, she became nauseated. Suzy ran for the bathroom, closed the door and vomited into the toilet. When she finished, she held her forehead in the way people do after they threw up in the toilet, and a light clicked on in her head. She shuddered, and she banished the thought.

"Suzy? Are you okay in there?" Grace knocked on the door to the bathroom.

"Yeah, Grace, I'm fine!" Suzy called back, and when she heard Grace walking away, she murmured to herself, "I sure hope." Suzy washed her face in the sink and opened the door, and when she looked into the kitchen, she saw Grace tossing the pizza. "What are you doing? That was my breakfast!"

"Well, you just threw up." Grace shrugged. She had blond hair in a pixie cut, and her violet eyes sparkled when she laughed. She was a round woman with heavy footsteps, but she had pleasant features besides. "I figured that you wouldn't want it, and I sure don't need the extra calories." She laughed loudly, and Suzy giggled. "Come here for a second. I want to show you something."

Suzy followed Grace up the steps to the attic, and in the attic there was lightweight golden armor displayed on a mannequin. Suzy gasped, and Grace smiled. "Your mom sent this to me in a box when she learned of my address. Said to give it to your older sister, but…" Grace became quiet, and Suzy remained quiet as well. "Lord, I don't know what it is, but I figured that you're old enough now to know about it…"

"You kept it?" Suzy asked, and she walked forward to run her fingers over the gold armor. "It's beautiful. I guess he was right…"

"Guess who was right?" Grace asked, and Suzy turned.

"Jeremy…" Suzy said, pulling out a sword that was in the holster. As she examined it, she added, "He's a friend of Aelita. He was talking about Passage Knights yesterday…" Suzy replaced the sword in its holster. The sword was curved, and she turned back to look at Grace. "And he said I was one. If this was left to my older sister by my mother, then I guess he was right."

Grace examined her foster child and pushed a clump of hair from her eyes. "Well, I guess there isn't much I can do about it now, huh?"

"No…" Suzy began to walk down the stairs. "I guess not."

* * *

A/N: Sorry that this took forever and a day! I decided to follow through with the whole Jason-thing, and I explained Suzy's eyes… yup, good day, good day.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five: Passage Knight_

Out of nowhere, Suzy looked up at Aelita and said, "Y'know, I like the name 'Will.'" She thought for a moment, and then added, "But I don't like the name 'William.' Isn't that strange?" The redhead looked to her pink haired friend, who looked at her strangely before laughing.

"That was completely random." Aelita admitted, and she got a hold on herself before saying, "No, I don't think it's all that strange. After all, 'William' is very regal-sounding. 'Will' is much less formal. I, personally, would be more comfortable around 'Will.'"

Suzy thought again for a moment, and then nodded. "You're so right." Suzy continued on her homework, and Aelita scribbled down her observations on Suzy's science project. "I appreciate you helping me. I would've never gotten this done without you."

"It's no big deal." Aelita shrugged. "I mean, you just discovered recently you were born into a family of Passage Knights. I know how that must make you feel."

"Oh. No, I'm fine with that. My family was always a bit on the 'whack' side." Suzy said. "Or, at least, I remember it to be. My mom went totally '_Texas Chainsaw Massacre_' on my dad when I was little." She looked at Aelita strangely when the pink haired girl groaned. "What?"

"Please don't say '_Texas Chainsaw Massacre_.'" Aelita begged. "Too many bad memories."

"Like?" Suzy provoked.

"Like watching Lyna and Jeremy getting an assassination attempt before my very eyes, watching Puck die, seeing what Jeremy was sort of like when he was addicted to a gancanagh…" Aelita listed. "It's unrelated to the movie, but Lyna and I were watching it the day that happened, so…"

Suzy flushed. "Oh." She scribbled down on her homework before blushing and asking, "So, what's Lyna like? I mean, I only saw her for a little while…"

"She's nice. Spontaneous, temperamental, overprotective at times, but nice." Aelita said, ignoring Suzy's tomato-red cheeks. "Um, she's headstrong, but she fails to see the obvious sometimes, and though she's usually joking around, she can be awfully serious, but that's not necessarily a bad thing." Aelita jotted something down on her observation worksheet. "I think that if you two hang out together more, you could be great friends."

Suzy smiled. Her face became serious when she asked, "And Jeremy? I see that you like him. What's he like?"

Aelita blushed. "Oh. Um, he was the first person I ever met from the outside world, so that'll always be special to me…" Aelita struggled to voice her thoughts, and Suzy found that amusing. "He's kind and smart and he understands me, but he isn't perfect…" She smiled and blushed faintly when she added, "But if anyone's close…"

Suzy couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Oh, girl, have you got it bad!"

"Got what?" Aelita asked, and Suzy laughed harder for a moment before looking up at Aelita's serious face. Though she stopped laughing for a moment, Suzy began again quickly.

"You've got it so bad! B-A-D!" Suzy laughed.

"What?" Aelita demanded.

"The love bug!" Suzy teased her.

"That's preposterous!"

"Is it, Aelita? Is it really?"

"Yes, it is, really!"

Suzy shook her head. "So, when's the honeymoon? Can I come?"

"After the wedding and sure." Aelita said sarcastically.

Suzy pulled out her cell phone from her jean pocket. She wore a pale yellow v-neck sweater and her boots. "That's my foster mom." Suzy announced after reading a text message she received. "How are you doing?"

"I'm done. What about you?"

"You're done? I've barely started!"

"Well, I said it once, and I'll say it again. I'll do your observations because that's not any real work, but I won't do your homework for you." Aelita pointed out. "That's cheating. Besides, you're the one who knows the material."

"You know the material. You just don't go to my school." Suzy pointed out. Aelita shrugged. "Do you mind if I turn on your TV? I work better with background noise."

Aelita shrugged once more and Suzy flipped on the TV. The news was on, and Suzy half-listened as she continued her work. "In other news, a strange pillar-like structure has appeared overnight near a small West Virginian town. Locals claim they have no idea where it came from or even what it is." The woman on the news reported, and Suzy looked up to see what it was. The structure was tall and cylindrical, and the bottom part was black while the rest was white. The rounded top seemingly floated above the top of the structure, and it had an ambient blue aura. "Authorities say that they are on the case and the structure will be dismantled over the course of the next few days."

"Wow. Check that thing _out_," Suzy gasped. "It's beautiful. And so familiar…"

Aelita crossed her arms behind her head and fell backwards on her bed. "I guess. If you like that sort of thing." She looked to Suzy from the corner of her eye. "Are you alright? You seem off today."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Suzy said, snapping a picture quickly on her phone of the structure. "I've just been doing some thinking."

"Like what?" Aelita goaded.

"Stuff." Suzy replied vaguely.

Aelita rolled her eyes. "You know I'm always here if you want to talk, Suzy." She said, hoping to get a reaction from her redheaded friend. Suzy only nodded and said nothing.

* * *

Suzy dragged herself into Anthea's classroom the next day. Aelita smiled at her and waved, but Suzy only groaned. "I need caffeine. Stat." She complained. She slumped down into the desk that Aelita had pushed together with hers. "I was up all last night, and I wasn't even doing anything. Just thinking about that structure they were talking about on TV yesterday."

"I saw that this morning. The workers around it were trying to take it down but they can't figure it out." Aelita reported, and she smiled as she added, "In other news, Mommy said that the school's got a new student today, so I'm going to show him around. You want to help?" Aelita asked hopefully, and as Suzy opened her mouth to refuse, Aelita looked to her with Bambi eyes.

"Oh, fine." She huffed eventually, and Aelita cheered. "He better have coffee." Suzy added, and the two girls fixed the desks before leaving to find the new kid. Aelita had changed from her pajamas to her day clothes, but Suzy had changed from her sweater and boots to the school uniform. They walked down the blank and boring halls to the front entrance, where a boy with black hair and pale skin sat on a bench. Aelita waved and called out to him, and he looked up. His eyebrows, unlike his hair, were brown, and Suzy knew right away that he'd died his hair. He didn't yet have the school uniform, so he wore a tight black tee-shirt with baggy black jeans and black boots. His jeans had red patches over where his knees would have been if they were visible.

As Suzy looked at him closer, she noticed that he, like Jason and herself, had golden eyes. "Hey, are you two going to show me around?" He asked, looking from Aelita to Suzy. His eyes paused on Suzy, but only for a split second.

Suzy nodded. "Yeah. I'm Suzette Powers, but you can call me Suzy. This is my friend Aelita Schaffer." Suzy reached out for his hand, and Aelita did the same after the boy took Suzy's hand with his. "Where are you from?"

"Louisiana." The boy said, and he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "My name's Lukas Hayes." He looked to Aelita, and he asked, "Are you new here, too? You don't have a uniform…"

"Huh? Oh, no. My mom is a teacher here. I usually don't come here, but the heater's broken at our house, so she doesn't want me home alone." Aelita said, and while Lukas seemed confused, he said nothing for a while.

"We didn't worry about heaters in Louisiana." Lukas said eventually. "We worried about air conditioners."

Suzy laughed half-heartedly. "If only that were so here. What do you want to bet that if West Virginia suddenly became a heat sack that most people's toes would fall off?" She joked. "Am I right?" Aelita looked at her strangely, but Lukas laughed. "You see? _He_ gets it!" Suzy shouted.

The bell rang, and Aelita motioned over her shoulder. "C'mon, Lukas. Classes are starting, and while you won't be late for any of them because this is your first day, you still have to show up." She smiled. She walked ahead of the other two, and while Suzy seemed uninterested with Lukas, he seemed to have an interest in her.

"So, uh, how long have you been going here?" He asked, walking at a pace so he could step in tune with Suzy.

"Since second grade, I guess." Suzy shrugged. "Before that I went to public school."

Lukas nodded. "Why doesn't Aelita go here?"

"I dunno. I guess she's got some kind of tutor." Suzy shrugged once more.

"There's a lot of snow around, eh?" Lukas said, making small talk. Suzy rolled her eyes and wondered why he was trying so hard. "It'd be pretty if it wasn't so dirty."

Suzy stopped walking and turned so she was completely facing him. "That's what happens when cars drive over it." She stated blankly, and she rushed to catch up with Aelita. Lukas was still for a moment before following. "Where are we going first?" She asked Aelita, who paused.

"I have no idea." Aelita replied. "What's first on your schedule, Lukas?" She turned to face the dark haired boy.

Lukas paused for a moment, and his hand flew to his back pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and unfolded it. "Uh…" He hummed as his eyes skimmed the paper. "Oh. Here we go. History." He announced, slapping the paper with the back of his hand.

Aelita sighed with relief. "Good. We're going the right way, at least." She pointed down the hall. "It's the last door on the right-hand side."

* * *

Like Suzy, Lukas went to Anthea's classroom for lunch. It was unexpected—upon later thought, they admitted they should have expected it, seeing as how Suzy and Aelita were the only people he knew—and Aelita stood to push a third desk to the two that she already had for Suzy and herself. "What's up?" She asked him as he sat down.

"Nothing," He replied, looking nervously from Aelita to Suzy before down to his food. "Do you guys always eat in here?"

"Ever since Aelita showed up, yeah." Suzy nodded sternly. "I used to eat alone before that." Lukas muttered an 'oh' sound before taking a bite from his sandwich. "What's that?"

"A sandwich," Lukas said.

"Is it vegan?" Suzy asked.

"It's ham," Lukas raised an eyebrow. "Do you want some?"

"Ew! No!" Suzy recoiled. "I won't eat anything that has a face, used to have a face or comes from something with a face!" She paused, and then shivered. "Yesterday morning I almost had a vegan pizza for breakfast."

Aelita had rolled her eyes when Suzy recited her dieting restrictions, but after, she asked, "Almost?"

"Oh." Suzy flushed. "I got sick before I could eat it. It wasn't pleasant." She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck.

"Does vegan pizza taste better than regular pizza?" Lukas asked.

"I think so, yes." Suzy nodded.

* * *

"Will you stop pacing?" Lyna begged Jeremy. "You're driving me nuts."

Jeremy's eyes flashed to her, and he said. "No. Aelita's back in that school with that weasel—" Jeremy was interrupted before he could continue.

"Calling someone a weasel is impolite, Einstein." Odd pointed out, flicking the air with his tail. "The proper term is 'a small carnivorous mammal.'" Odd smiled at his long word.

"Whoop-de-doo. You learned the scientific word for meat-eater." Jeremy applauded sarcastically. "But I still wish that Anthea didn't take her back there." He looked out the high-up window. It was blocked by snow, but the elf boy hardly noticed.

Lyna stood and half-hugged her brother. "Patience, big brother. When push comes to shove, I'm sure we won't have to worry about that 'small carnivorous mammal' again."

Jeremy looked to his sister. "And why do you say that?"

"'Cause I'm a girl and girls' have an instinct for this stuff." Lyna announced proudly. "She's only got eyes for one blond kid around here."

"Oh, really? So if I called Aelita right now she'd tell me who you've only got eyes for?"

"You know who I've got eyes for."

"I do?"

"Yup."

"Remind me."

"Well, isn't it obvious? I like my men crispy."

"Crispy? You mean like bacon?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Whatever. Hey, just for the record, am I crispy?"

"No, Jeremy, you're crispy on the inside."

"Then what does it mean?"

"Beautiful and black*."

* * *

*Crispy: Beautiful and black. It's a term I learn from my friend. She referred to a guy at our school as crispy, but oddly enough, she didn't have a crush on him…

A/N: Yup, another OC has been introduced. I give him bonus points for persistence, though.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six: What It's Come To_

As she stared at it, Lukas and Suzy at her side, Aelita paused before she stated, "I knew that it was supposed to be close by, but I had no idea how close it was." The structure, even stranger than it had seemed when she first saw it on the television screen, was massive, and a crowd had gathered around it. Some had tools in hand to give to the workers who were trying to take the structure down, while others were protesting and screaming that it was art. Aelita had no idea what it was, nor did anyone else around her, and while she found it somewhat ominous, she didn't want to see it destroyed. "Any guesses?" She turned to her human friends behind her, but both were star struck.

"Well, would you look at that…" Lukas muttered, his eyes moving quickly over it as he attempted to take in everything about the structure. "And I thought the art in New Orleans was amazing…"

Suzy said nothing at first, and then her eyes fell from the seemingly levitating rounded top to the vine-like black area around the base. "I think its hollow on the inside. The top floats, so something has to be making that so…" She observed. "The question is; how do you get inside? It'll be easier to demolish from the inside anyway."

"That's very true." Lukas agreed. He glanced to the redhead beside him. He felt as if he made Suzy nervous, and he crossed his arms, hoping that the gesture would help ease her stress. Suzy ignored him, and she remained nervous.

Aelita huffed. "Excuse me!" She spoke loudly to grab the attention of the Passage Knights. "Do either of you two have any idea what this thing _is?_" She folded her arms impatiently, and the two teens jumped when they heard her voice.

"Huh? Oh, no, I've got no clue." Suzy shrugged. She looked around at the faces in the crowd, and she faintly heard Lukas saying something to Aelita. Her eyes fell on a blond boy with blue eyes. "Hey, isn't that Jason Chambers?" She nudged Aelita gently, pointing to the boy. Aelita nodded. The only thing that was different was the blue headband wrapped around his forehead. It covered most of his forehead and wrapped around the back of his skull. "Interesting choice of headgear, don't you agree?"

Lukas laughed, honestly, unlike the fake laughs he would give when Suzy usually tried to joke. But he became serious quickly, and he said, "I wonder what he's doing here. Does he usually go around to new places with a book after dark?"

"Well, he usually goes to new places after dark, but the book's a new one." Suzy responded. "My bet's going on that he's pretending to read it. Anyone care to place a wager?"

Lukas raised his hand. Suzy smacked it down. Jason looked up from his book and around, and when he spotted Aelita, he smiled warmly and waved before turning back to his book. Aelita shivered, but only slightly. The smile had been warmer than the deceptive smiles that she'd seen from him in the days before, and the wave was uncharacteristic. "That was strange," She muttered, and she faced the other two, but she glanced at him once more before turning her attention away. "Book, headband, warm silent greeting… is it just me or is he acting like—"

"Like what, an actual human being?" Suzy interrupted. "Chambers is the single-best teenage actor I've ever met. He can act like anything from a vampire to an evil genius." Lukas opened his mouth to say something, but Suzy glared at him and added, "Trust me."

Aelita tilted her head and pointed out, "Every time you say 'trust me,' Suzy, I start to trust you less and less."

"Daggers in my heart, kid. _Daggers in my heart._" Suzy said, impersonating pain.

"Hey, girls, don't look now, but he's coming this way." Lukas said, pointing to Jason as he approached the trio. "Act natural." He ordered, wrapping his arm around Suzy. She smacked it off and lunged for him, shoving her fist in his face but not hitting him with it. "Sorry, sorry," Lukas apologized quickly, motioning for her to back up.

Aelita had been paying more attention to the other two than she had been to Jason. "Hey, Aelita; how was school today?" He asked when he reached them, and she jumped. He reached for her in the way that people do when trying to see if someone is alright, but he didn't touch her. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to scare you."

"I'm fine," Aelita said gruffly, and she took a half-step back. "What do you want?"

Jason seemed surprised at her response, but he replied, "When I joined the Xanadu, they gave me this book, and it's got a section about a tower much like this one. I wanted to see if this one was a legitimate tower or not." He opened his book and showed the pink haired girl the pages. One the right side, there were paragraphs that had multiple sightings in parentheses such as '_See Figure 1_' or '_See Fig. 2._' On the left side, there was a full-color illustration of the structure, with multiple pencil-like drawings surrounding it.

Aelita examined it for a second. Then she snapped her head up and asked, "Wait, did I just hear you say 'Xanadu?'" When Jason nodded, she added, "No! You didn't! That has to be the worst organization on the face of the planet!"

Jason nodded in agreement. "You don't have to tell _me_ twice." He looked down to the book as he closed it, and then he returned his attention to Aelita. "What are you doing here?"

"Nothing." Aelita snapped, crossing her arms defensively. "Absolutely nothing."

Jason examined Aelita's expression and asked, "Did I do something wrong…?"

"Gee, I wonder." Aelita asked sarcastically.

"What did I do? I don't want you to be mad at me." Jason was honest as he spoke, and it was obvious then that he was hurt.

"Well, I'm sure the list is much longer, but would you like to start at 'shot an arrow at my wing'?" Aelita snapped.

Jason paused for a second, thinking. "Oh!" He finally said, and he shifted the headband to show Aelita the elf ear hiding beneath it. "Human Disguise 101: hide your most obvious features. I guess it worked." He smiled.

"Jeremy!" Aelita exclaimed. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright. You spent the last few minutes thinking I was my human look-alike." Jeremy shrugged. "Like I said; that means its working."

"What if people see you?" Aelita asked as Jeremy fixed the headband to hide his ear. "You're not supposed to exist!"

"Aelita, I'm a teenage boy standing around a popular place that's constantly on TV. No one is going to look twice." Jeremy pointed out. "And even if they do, it's so dark out that people will just think they're seeing things."

"Where are your glasses?" The human girl asked, not waiting very long after he finished.

"Right here," The elf boy pointed to his glasses, which were folded and hanging from the collar of his coat.

"Oh," She blinked. "How'd I miss that?"

"They blend." He said. Jeremy looked to Suzy and Lukas, who were apparently arguing. "Okay, the redhead is Suzy, right?" He looked to Aelita, who nodded and took his glasses. She unfolded them and slid them on his face. "Thank you. Then who's the guy with the dark hair?"

"Lukas Hayes. He's new to the school that my mom works at. Suzy and I showed him around the school the other day*, and now we're friends." Aelita smiled. "And you're welcome."

Lukas heard his name mentioned, and he glanced to Aelita, and he grinned in a friendly way before noticing Jeremy. His smile faded. "Uh, Jason, I thought you wore contacts…" Lukas finally said, obviously uncomfortable. Suzy turned and looked to Jeremy as well.

Aelita motioned for Lukas and Suzy to move closer to her and Jeremy, whose blue eyes were fixated on Lukas' golden ones. The humans moved closer, but only slightly. Sighing, Aelita introduced, "Lukas, this is Jeremy. He's a friend of mine. Suzy, you remember Jeremy, don't you?"

Suzy thought for a moment. "Right, right, right!" She shouted suddenly, and added apologetically, "I'm sorry about your ear. It was a misunderstanding." She moved closer to the elf boy and her human friend, and asked, "How's your sister?"

"Fine." Jeremy said. Lukas moved closer to the trio, but he stood close to Suzy. They talked for a while, but their conversation was interrupted by confused murmurs that ran through the crowd. The teens looked at the crowd, and the people around them seemed awed, but scared as well. Every face was turned to the aura around the structure Jeremy had called a tower. The calm blue color had been replaced by a sinister red one. "Well, that doesn't look good."

"You can say that again." Lukas muttered. "Maybe someone pissed it off."

"I'd laugh, but that's completely possible." Jeremy looked to Lukas as he said that.

Suzy shivered, and she nudged Aelita. "I think we should go. Whatever the red glow means, it can't be good."

* * *

"As you can see, locals have taken quite an interest in this structure, with observers coming as early as four in the morning and leaving as late as midnight. Witnesses say that the glow around the structure changed color around eleven o'clock last night, and it's now a very weird red…" The woman on the news reported, and Lyna stared at the screen, interested. She removed her moccasin boots and curled her legs up onto the couch in the basement. The others walked in, and Yumi plopped down to Lyna's left, with a space in between. Odd hopped onto the back of the couch and walked across it to sit on Lyna's right. Ulrich sat to Yumi's left, and Gus hopped the couch and placed his feet in-between Odd and Lyna.

Jeremy looked at them, and he sighed. "One of these days you guys are going to break that." He said, and there was a mutual shrug. He rolled his eyes and went to his work desk at the other end of the room.

"…the workers have not yet been able to remove the structure—what the?" The woman turned around when she heard a surprised yelp. The cameraperson moved to show the viewers what had happened, and workers stared at the flailing legs of someone. The top half had disappeared, but their legs hung out from the tower. "Oh my god! What happened?" The woman said, and she ran to help the other workers pull the someone from the tower. When they managed to pull them out, the woman asked him what happened and held her microphone to his face.

"All I did was push on it a little, and it tried to suck me in!" The man was frantic. "That thing's _alive!_"

"Like this?" The woman passed the man her microphone and placed her hands on the tower. Her hands caused ripples, and when she pushed on it, it sucked her inside. The cameraperson followed her inside, and the viewers were able to see the mechanics of the tower. It was mostly dark blue, but there were light blue boxes with various data inside them lining the walls. "What is this place…?" The woman asked herself, and the screen flashed back to the hosts.

Lyna flipped off the television to look at her friends sitting to either side. "Well, we know now that it sure isn't for decoration, huh?" Lyna faked a smile, and there was no response. "Refresh my memory, Jerry, but what's a Passage Tower again?"

Jeremy looked over his shoulder to his sister, and he explained, "They're massive transfer points from Earth to the world of creatures."

"Um, you remember the tower that appeared nearby, right?" Lyna asked, flipping around on the couch so she could see Jeremy as he nodded. "I think that's one of them."

"No dip. There are plenty of towers in the world of creatures, but we don't have them on Earth." He snapped, entering a code into his computer rapidly. He apparently made a mistake because he hit the backspace key a few times before continuing to type.

"So, if a Passage Tower were to come to Earth, what would that mean?"

"That someone's going to use it."

"Jeremy…" Lyna muttered before saying, "Shouldn't we be trying to make sure that no one uses it?"

"We could, but there are plenty of people around it, and besides—we can't stop someone from using it if they're coming from the world of creatures." Jeremy said. "And I think that's where they're going to come from."

"Hello, creatures!" A voice greeted, shocking the creatures that sat in the room. Suzy and Aelita entered, and Suzy continued with, "How's everyone doing?"

"Fine, I guess." Gus shrugged. Aelita waved to the creatures on the couch before joining Jeremy. Suzy watched her and stood still for a moment. "Hey, don't be a stranger—if you don't want to go over there, come join us over here." The African-American wizard motioned for Suzy to sit down with them. She sat in the available seat between Lyna and Yumi, and she looked to each of them awkwardly and blushed. She pushed her toes together nervously and shoved her hands into her lap. The redhead looked to her toes and smiled through her heavy blush.

At the other end, Aelita watched Jeremy enter various codes into his computer. "How's it going?"

He paused before asking, "How's what going?"

"This. Whatever… _this_ is." Aelita clarified, motioning to his computer screen.

"Back-up for the files on here. My guess is that I'm going to need it." Jeremy leaned back in his chair, and Aelita leaned forward to look at it. "And I'd say it's going pretty well." He clicked the 'Start' button, and it began to load the codes he'd entered.

After a few seconds, Aelita took the mouse and clicked the 'Cancel' button. As Jeremy began to ask her why she'd done so, she pointed to a part of the code. "This isn't right." She said, and when Jeremy looked at it, he saw that she was right.

"Damn." He raised an eyebrow. "You're right."

Aelita smiled.

* * *

Midnight had arrived. Aelita and Suzy paused to look at the tower. They stood there for a few minutes before they heard a rustling in the bushes. Lukas appeared, and they relaxed. He saluted them, and he said, "Did you two see the news today? Some news reporter figured out how to get inside."

Suzy's eyes brightened. "Really? How?" She asked loudly.

"Uh…" Lukas stammered, and when he regained control of himself, he said, "You just have to push on it a little, and then it'll let you in."

Suzy practically jumped for joy. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go, go, _go!_" She grabbed Lukas and Aelita's wrists, ran forward to the tower and released her hold long enough to push on the tower. Lukas followed her lead, and Aelita backed away from it. She looked around, and she ran inside the tower. "How cool is this?" Suzy said, smiling widely as she looked around.

Aelita looked around the tower, and she smiled. "This is more my style." She crossed her arms and looked to Suzy. Aelita looked up, and she noticed a platform. "Hey look. There's an upper platform." She pointed to it, and Suzy and Lukas looked. Aelita walked to the side, and the blue-grey rings on the platform became a pure white. She looked down, and wondered aloud, "I wonder if there's a lower one, too…" She spread her arms to her side, and she allowed herself to fall.

"Aelita!" Lukas shouted, and Aelita's human friends ran to the side. The dark haired boy jumped after her, and Suzy cursed to herself before jumping after him.

* * *

Shiloh dipped her clay vase into the murky waters of the Malinaw River. The water was the color of mud, and she was pretty sure the water she was currently scooping for her family would one day soon make her sick. "Hey! You!" A voice called out to Shiloh from across the river. She looked up to see three strange figures smiling at her. "Yeah! You!" The redhead of the three shouted once more. "Can you tell me where we are?"

Before she answered, Shiloh looked to the figures. Two were female, and the other was male. The male had dark hair, and his eyes were deep brown. One of the females was pale-skinned and frail with pink hair and green eyes. The female who called out to Shiloh had red hair like fire—an art lost to Shiloh's people—and sparkly green eyes. Shiloh felt very strange in comparison. She had burnt umber-colored skin and crystal blue hair. Her eyes were the same color as her hair, and a blue that was a bit darker than her hair and eyes colored the paint that decorated her forehead. Her ears were pointed, but they weren't long like an elf's.

She was a pixie. After vampires took over the throne that should have belonged to humans, pixies adapted to have taller bodies and smaller wings. Shiloh couldn't fly with her wings, but she was able to show emotion through them.

"You're near Marumi Village in the Puril Damuhan!" Shiloh called across the river, and as she did so, the water spilled from her vase. She was able to keep the vase from falling into the river, but the vase was empty as she did so. "Drat." She muttered.

She stood up and looked across the river. The figures were hopping across the river where the stones poked through the polluted water. The redhead made it across the river first, and she held her hand out and said, "My name's Suzette Powers, but—" She was interrupted by Shiloh when she realized the redhead was human.

"Please don't hurt me!" Shiloh begged. "I'm just some stupid village girl! I haven't done anything!" She tried to back away from the humans. "Please…" Shiloh's eyes flickered between the humans. She'd been taught to fear humans, and she'd seen one human slave turned into a vampire when she was small. Many magical creatures enslaved humans that remained on Lyoko after the fall of the Human King, but creatures were still taught that they were dangerous.

"I'm not going to hurt you." The redhead reassured Shiloh gently. "Call me Suzy." Suzy smiled, and Shiloh took a step backwards to the grass lining both sides of the dirt path. Suzy's smile vanished. "You can trust me. I'm a Passage Knight, and so is Lukas here." Suzy pointed to the dark haired male standing with her.

The fact that she was with Passage Knights didn't offer Shiloh any comfort. "You're kawani na tao." Shiloh looked to each of the humans before translating, "Humans."

The pink haired female realized something, and she stepped forward. "Humans once ruled here, though, didn't they? Human kings and human queens who produced human heirs," She looked deep into Shiloh's eyes before adding, "Human heirs like me."

Shiloh was shocked for a moment. "No," She muttered before shouting, "No, no, no! You can't be an heir!" She gripped her hair before releasing it and saying, "Even if you were related to the Human King Franz, your lineage would be so blurred by now that you'd have none of his blood at all!"

"I know it's difficult to understand." The pink haired female spoke, her voice strong. "I don't really understand it myself. But when I died fourteen thousand years ago…" Shiloh looked into her eyes. "…I didn't really die. I went to Earth, with my parents. Time passes slowly there. It experienced ten years while Lyoko experienced fourteen thousand."

Shiloh's mouth became twisted, not believing what the female had to say. She saw this in the pixie's eyes, and both of her eyes glowed pink. Shiloh could still see the outline of where the pink haired female's irises were, but otherwise, the pink light hid her eyes. "You must believe me, pixie girl." The female commanded, and Shiloh stiffened. The stiffness faded quickly, along with the feeling of doubt. When Shiloh seemed relaxed, the light faded from the female—no, the princess'—eyes. "What's your name?" The princess asked her. Shiloh hesitated. "If you don't tell me, we're going to have to call you 'Stupid Village Girl.'" The princess joked.

The pixie girl smiled. "Shiloh," She said, and then rephrased it. "My name is Shiloh, Princess Aelita." She picked up one corner of her ragged dress and curtsied.

"Oh, my gosh, there's no need for formalities!" Aelita waved her hand in front of her. "Just call me Aelita. I'm not used to being 'princess.' In fact, I only think that I am." She rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm called 'princess' a lot in my dreams, and Amaterasu said that I was the princess of this world…"

"Don't doubt it!" Shiloh exclaimed suddenly. "Do you know what you did just then? That power?" Shiloh looked into Aelita's innocent eyes. "I guess you don't. Regular humans don't have that. Just your family."

Suzy laughed half-heartedly. "Heh. You know, we'll have to see if Odd can use that power when we get back." She turned to Aelita, who smiled.

Shiloh smiled as well, and she walked to the riverbed and scooped the water. She walked down the path a little, and she turned to look at the humans. "C'mon. I've got to get this water back to my family. You can stay with us."

One of the humans grabbed her shoulder. "Don't take that back to your family!" Aelita called out. Shiloh looked at her over her shoulder. "It's filthy! You'll get sick!"

Shiloh turned around so she could fully face Aelita. "This is the only water we have." She explained, and she walked down the path, leaving the heartbroken Aelita behind. She paused, but she didn't turn. "Are you three coming or not? Once the sun reaches the mountains on the horizon, the vampires will search for their prey." Shiloh motioned to the far-off mountains before continuing.

* * *

*There's a time gap. Whereas this would be December 1st if there wasn't a time gap, this is December 4th. It's Friday. Again. Who doesn't love Friday?

A/N: Ah… I love the smell of Lyoko in the late afternoon. If any of you are keeping a list of settings, you can add 'Lyoko circa 16409' to your list. Also, I'd like to say that when the characters talk about Aelita's family being gone for over fourteen thousand years, they've actually been gone for around fourteen thousand four hundred years… you can see why I chose 'over fourteen thousand years.'


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter Seven: The Vampire Effect_

As Shiloh walked off towards what the humans assumed was her village, they looked to each other. There was a pause before anyone said anything, but when Lukas broke the silence, he didn't seem all too sure of what he was saying. "I think we should just go home." He said, motioning to the Passage Tower that loomed in the distance. "This place is weird. That chick's a pixie. There are vampires here. At least at home we know that we won't get eaten."

"Vampires don't eat people, Lukas; they drink their blood." Suzy corrected him, and she paused. "Your eyes are _brown!_"

"Your eyes are green." Lukas shrugged. Suzy was amazed at his ability to knock it off.

She ignored it. "But, anyway—I think you're right." Suzy looked to Shiloh, who grew smaller as she walked farther away. "You heard Shiloh. Vampires look for their prey at sunset, and my guess is that they'll keep looking until dawn. If we go with her, we could threaten her entire family."

Aelita said nothing as Suzy and Lukas discussed going back to Earth. "I'm staying here." Aelita announced. She looked back to the other two. "Amaterasu said I had to come back eventually, anyway. And… even if Shiloh is in danger because we're here, I think she may be in bigger trouble if we leave."

"What makes you say that? I can't think of a fate worse than being drained of all bodily fluids." Suzy said, and when Lukas snickered, she smacked him. "I'm talking about _blood_, you idiot!"

"You see the water she's bringing to her family! That's going to make them sick!" Aelita shouted. "The vampires are in power! Because of them, Lyoko is completely third world!" She unzipped her coat and threw it into the green-grey grass. "It's so hot here. Why is it so hot? It's not winter yet, but still…"

Aelita ran forward, calling out to the pixie so that way she would wait for the human girl. Suzy looked to Lukas, and she said shakily, "Our options are leave her here or follow her."

"On one hand, we could get help for this place if we leave…" Lukas weighed the options. "…but she could be dead by the time we get here. On the other hand, we follow her and then we'd be sure that we know she's okay…" He looked to Suzy before adding, "…but then we could die."

"You heard her. She's a frigging princess!" Suzy pointed to the human girl on the horizon. "We follow her. No questions asked."

* * *

There were no stairs in the small hut Shiloh shared with her mother and father. It was a single story home, so there was no need for stairs. Besides the inadequately small hut—keeping in mind that there was a grand total of four rooms and not even one of them being a bathroom—Shiloh's family was also small. Her mother was a little shorter than Yumi, had the demigoddess been there, and her father was a little taller than her mother. Shiloh told the humans that she was thirteen, but she looked about the size of a twelve-year-old girl—which still gave the pixie a couple of inches on Aelita. Her dress was pale blue, and she was bare foot. Her ankles were decorated with tight silver rings.

Shiloh entered the hut and pulled back the curtain door so the humans could follow her. "Home sweet hut," Shiloh smiled weakly, and she brought the clay vase of water into one of the rooms. Like the entrance, the room didn't have a door but a curtain. Aelita looked at it. The curtain looked like an old faded tapestry, the ends torn up unevenly like the hem of Shiloh's dress. The design was nearly incomprehensible, but it wasn't difficult to see most if not all details. Aelita turned to the other curtain she saw, and the design was much simpler. It was dark blue, and there were silver designs like wind made by thin silver threads.

"This would be pretty if it wasn't so faded," Suzy commented on the curtain that served as the front door. She held it in her hands and added, "Did either of you bring '_Clorox 2 Stain Fighter and Color Booster_,' by any chance?"

Aelita looked around the hut while she removed her boots and her socks. She shoved her socks down into her boots. The floor was dirt, and Aelita had noticed the roof was made of dirt and grass when she came in, but the walls seemed to be made of hardened bricks of mud plastered together by water. Shiloh exited the room she had entered, but she no longer carried the vase. "This is one of the oldest huts in the village," Shiloh explained to Aelita when she noticed her expression. "You were probably a newborn when it was built. I've heard that back then, the water in the Malinaw River wasn't dirty like it is now, and it was much larger back then as well."

Malinaw River. Something about the phrase sounded familiar.

"Since the vampires took over, they polluted the water and restricted its flow by a dam near the mountains on the east horizon." Shiloh continued. "What little water they allow to leak out is like the river that you saw. Many die because of the illnesses the water causes, but many more die faster if they don't drink it." Shiloh ran her burnt umber-colored fingers over the walls.

"Shouldn't you and your family be living someplace less…" Aelita looked around. How to put it? She considered 'dead and gone,' 'polluted' and 'hellish.' "…someplace less on the poverty line?" Aelita continued. "I mean, you are a pixie, right? Shouldn't you be living in a forest, or in a field of flowers?"

Shiloh shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe." She leaned against the wall. "The vampires forced creatures living in the natural areas around the place they wanted to put their capital city to relocate. My ancestors settled here, along with some of the pixies they knew and a few elves that lived nearby."

"It sounds to me that the vampires ruined everything." Aelita accused. It was then that she remembered the phrase 'Malinaw River.' It had been home to many aquatic creatures, like kappa and naiads. She suddenly realized that she had no way of knowing what had happened to those creatures, but it was safe to assume that they'd died. She felt a twinge of guilt, and she added, "Of course, my 'death' didn't help, either."

"You were three," Shiloh shrugged. "It's not like you could put in your diplomatic opinion."

"No, but then the vampires wouldn't be in charge."

"No, the vampires _would_ still be in charge. You'd just be dead."

"What do you mean?"

"They'd have killed you."

"Assume they didn't."

"Well, then you'd probably have been raised to rule with compassion and an iron fist, then you'd get married, most likely because of an arranged marriage, then you'd produce an heir, who would then follow in your footsteps." Shiloh explained. She looked to Aelita, raised an eyebrow, and added, "My life may be bad, but your life would have _bit_."

"Ugh. Don't say 'bit.' It makes me think 'vampire.'" Aelita sighed.

Shiloh shrugged, and when Aelita slumped onto the floor, she sat next to her. "Maybe so. But you would have lived like that all those years ago, and though you and I both know that it's wrong, you probably wouldn't have thought twice about it." Shiloh looked at her. "How'd you get here, anyway? When a transfer zone opens, it usually makes a sound similar to one God would make if he sneezed. I didn't hear anything like that."

"From the tower." Aelita explained, and she glanced to Lukas and Suzy, who were either arguing about the best color booster or loudly discussing something called 'west duller rooster.' Both ways, they were yelling over each other, and it was impossible to deceiver what exactly it was about. "You said 'usually.' Has someone come here from Earth before?" Aelita asked, looking to Shiloh with honest curiosity.

"Yes." Shiloh nodded. "A teenage girl and a much older man come and meet with the Vampire King every so often. Usually once a year, sometimes twice a year." Shiloh noticed in Aelita's eyes that the human girl wanted to know more, so she racked her brain for more details. "Um… the man sort of looks like the Human King Franz, and the girl had dark hair and some kind of purple paint of her lips…"

Aelita thought for a moment, and she shuddered.

"Uh… oh!" Shiloh searched for details before remembering something. "They talked in some weird language. The man said something like '_Lorsque la Tour Passage s'allume en rouge, je vais envoyer Laurelei. Quand elle vous trouve, envoyez vos troupes dans la Tour de Passage et vous trouverez un monde d'êtres humains. Mes troupes et je vais vous aider à détruire tous les êtres humains sur cette planète miserable._' Or something. At least he did the last time he was here."

Aelita seemed thoroughly shocked. "Oh, god…" She muttered.

"What? What does that mean?"

"It means that the man you saw was Xana, and the girl you saw was his daughter Laurelei." Aelita said. "And it means that pretty soon, Laurelei's going be here and the vampire troops will go back to Earth with her."

"Oh. Well, that's good. Better they be on Earth then here." Shiloh shrugged with a smile.

"No! That's bad!" Aelita shouted. "Earth practically has nothing but humans! They'll kill all of them!" She stood and paced around. A light clicked on in her head, and she tapped Suzy's shoulder. "Suzy, do you have your little plastic box?"

Suzy paused before asking, "My what?"

"Your little plastic box. The one I used to call my mom. Do you have it?" Aelita clarified.

"You mean my cell phone?" Suzy asked, and Aelita shrugged then nodded. "Yeah. I don't know if you'll get service, though…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. She hit a button and waited. Her jaw dropped, and then she announced, "I get reception in an alternate universe? I can't even get reception at the mall!8"

Aelita took the box from Suzy, and as she hit a sequence of numbers, she said, "Neither can Lyna." She held the phone up to her ear, and when someone answered it and said 'hello,' Aelita asked, "Mommy? Hi! Why did you answer? Can I talk to Jeremy?" She paused. "What do you mean he's not there? I was trying to call him!"

Suzy took the phone away from Aelita. "If you were trying to call Jeremy, why did you dial your home phone number?" She asked the pink haired girl.

"I didn't." Aelita defended.

"Yes you did! Look, you see? After you called your mom, I put your home number in my phone. See, it says 'Aelita Home' right there!" Suzy showed Aelita the screen.

"You mean that there's a different number for everyone?" Aelita asked.

"Yeah. Duh. Did you just assume that you thought of the person you wanted to talk to and then dial a number?"

Aelita was quiet for a second. "No…"

"_Right_." Suzy said skeptically as she held the phone up to her ear. "Sorry, Mrs. Schaffer." She apologized and hung up. "Okay. Now what's his number?"

"I don't know." Aelita admitted. "Um, can I see that?" Suzy handed Aelita the phone. "Okay, let's try this. 5-3-7-3-6-9…" She pressed the green button.

"Why that one?" Suzy asked.

"It spells 'Jeremy,'" Aelita responded with flawless logic, a phrase that here means 'the sequence 537369 made perfect sense to Aelita, but to everyone else, she was slightly insane.**'

"Give me that!" Suzy snatched the phone away and hung up.

Lukas watched this, and he took out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He apparently found the number he'd been looking for, because he hit the green button and held the phone up to his ear. "Dude! It's Lukas," He greeted soon after. "Um, when they were walking home last night—or tonight, whatever—Suzy and Aelita stopped to look at the tower or whatever, and then Suzy dragged Aelita and me inside. Aelita… _fell_… and then Suzy and I jumped after her, and now we're in some weird little third-world village with an overgrown pixie." Lukas paused. "Well, she's got _wings! _No, not Aelita—where did you get that Aelita had wings? Anyway, she wanted to talk to you—no, not the pixie. Aelita. Why would the pixie want to talk to you?"

Suzy looked to Lukas. "Who the hell are you talking to?"

"Jeremy," Lukas responded. His eyes widened considerably, and then he added quickly, "No, no, I'm still here. Suzy asked who I was talking to, so I told her. My guess is that Aelita wants to tell you something… yeah, sure. But if you come here, you better know how to get us back. Yeah, whatever. See you then."

"You're talking to Jeremy?" Aelita said, and she ran towards Lukas. "Don't let him hang up!" She ordered, and Lukas handed her the phone. "Jeremy? Yeah, it really is you! What's your number?"

Aelita looked around. "Forget that. Tell me later. I don't have a pen." She said, shoving her free hand into her pocket. "Remember how the tower was glowing red? Well, you need to keep humans away from it…" She paused as Jeremy said something into the phone. "Thanks! I don't know what I'd do without you."

Aelita hung up and handed Lukas his phone. Suzy looked to Lukas strangely. "Why do you have Jeremy's phone number?" She asked him. "You met him _once_."

"He gave it to me. I gave him mine." Lukas shrugged.

"Why did you give each other your phone numbers?" Suzy asked.

"It's a guy thing, I guess." Lukas shoved his phone into his pocket.

"No, dude, that's not a guy thing!" Suzy said.

"How would you know?"

"Believe it or not, I've actually been around guys before!"

Lukas rolled his eyes, and Suzy trembled in frustration.

* * *

Jeremy glanced at the tower from behind a tree. Though the workers had found a way in, the demolition had failed to make progress. People were still clumped around it, and Jeremy covered his ears with his headband. He kept his glasses on, however, and he approached the crowd. He politely pushed past the people around him, and as he reached the tower, a worker blocked the elf boy from entering. "What do you think you're doin', kid? Thiz area iz ztrictly off-limitz to everyone bezidez the workerz." The man said, and when Jeremy looked at him, he noticed the slight green tint to his skin. Most of his skin was covered, but his face wasn't. His neck had pale cover-up plastered onto it, as did the man's jaw. Jeremy recognized him as one of Laurelei's henchmen. "If you aren't here to work, you bezt be goin'."

"Uh, I'm sorry, sir, but my friends are inside." Jeremy said, trying to get past the massive man.

"That'z too bad." The man said. "But you ztill aren't allowed inzide. What doez thiz look like to you? A playground?"

"No, you don't understand! They need my help!" The elf tried once more to get past him, but it didn't work.

"No, you don't underztand. Thiz iz not a playground. If your friendz need help, they zhould juzt zay zo." The man ordered. "Now go."

The man and Jeremy argued for a few minutes, but then Jeremy felt the headband being grabbed by someone, and that someone yanked it off his head, yanking Jeremy's head back with it. The elf boy rubbed his neck, pained, and at first, he didn't notice the humans around him staring at his ears, which had been exposed and were reacting to the pain much like Jeremy was. When he did notice, he looked around, and he blushed hard. The woman from the news, who had been waiting around for more news about the tower, rushed forward and yanked on one of Jeremy's ears before declaring they were real and motioning for the cameraperson to prepare to start filming. "Your elf ears are real. Did you get surgery, or are they natural?"

"They're natural," Jeremy tried to get away from the staring humans, but Laurelei's henchman grabbed his shoulder to hold him still.

"Can you prove it?" The woman asked him.

"Um…" Jeremy thought for a moment. "I've got a disposable camera at home that's supposedly got a picture of me on the day I was born with elf ears…" He struggled against the man, but to no avail. "If you'd be as so kind as to let go of me so I can go get it…"

"Oh, no, you're not leaving my zight!" The man shot down Jeremy's plans.

"Why not? He's seems like a trustworthy boy," The cameraperson interjected.

"Do you know what an elf iz, zir?" The man asked. "They're mizchievouz magical creaturez and they interfere with human affairz! He waz here earlier, too, when thiz thing ztarted to glow red! I'll bet he'z why we can't knock thiz thing down!" Laurelei's henchman snickered as the thought raced through the minds of the humans in front of him. "Who'z to zay he won't juzt take off?"

Jeremy sighed heavily when the crowd released first a few murmurs, and then shouts of anger. Jeremy reached into his pocket and quickly dialed Lukas' phone number. "Uh, Lukas? I might be late…" Laurelei's henchman grabbed the phone with his free hand and crushed it. "What the hell was that for?"

The man simply shook his head. Jeremy returned his gaze to the crowd, and he saw the supporters of the tower forcing the crowd backwards. One looked back to him, and he noticed that it was Sam Knight, and he smiled in a friendly way. Sam smiled back, and she turned to face the elf boy and the man. She drew her sword, and she pointed the tip at the man. "Release the elf _now,_ dude."

"Make me, faerie." The man said, tightening his grip on Jeremy's shoulder. Sam paused. She knew that if she charged at the man, she could hurt Jeremy in the process. Jeremy noticed the dilemma Sam was having and kicked the man's shin. It probably hurt Jeremy a lot more than it hurt the man, but it was enough for the man to release his shoulder. Jeremy rushed away, and Sam charged with the tip of her sword pointed towards the man. Sam forced the sword deep into the man's heart, and then withdrew it quickly. The man hit the ground, and Sam kicked off the hat that had casted shadows onto his face and made it seem like it was normally colored.

Sam placed the sword back into its holster. "Go on, now. This man will be enough of a distraction as it is." She motioned to the tower, and Jeremy smiled before running inside. Sam watched him, and when he was out of sight, she muttered, "Don't get yourself killed, you idiot."

* * *

*It's the return of the bad service at the mall! How is it that no one can get reception at the mall?

**This moment was proudly sponsored by Lemony Snicket.

* * *

A/N: Updated. I forgot my asterisk for the mall.


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter Eight: Poverty Line_

Aelita pulled back the curtain that served as a front door and peered out. The sky was orange and streaked with pink. The sun had hidden itself behind the mountains in the west. She noted how beautiful it was, and then remembered that the vampires were going to search for prey. Behind her, Shiloh folded the blankets that she'd brought in before she went to the river, Suzy watched Shiloh do so with a serious expression and Lukas fiddled with a game he had installed on his phone. Aelita looked back outside, and she examined the village Shiloh lived in. There were only about six huts, and while some had curtains like Shiloh's, some had doors that seemed to be made of uneven boards tied together with green twine. Each one had mud brick walls, and grass on their roofs. There had been a well in the center of the village, but it had apparently been poisoned at one point and the villagers had torn it down and sealed it shut. The mud bricks that had once lined it were scattered about. On the outskirts of the village, there was tall unruly grass like one would expect to see on the Savannah. The grass rustled, and Aelita noticed a human-like body running through it. "Shiloh," Aelita began, and the pixie looked to her. "How is this curtain going to protect us?"

Shiloh smiled. "Oddly enough, vampires won't enter a house without permission. The mistake most people make is to let them come inside without identifying if they're vampires or not." She explained as she folded her final blanket. She placed it on her pile and closed the curtain Aelita held open. "That being said, they enter the castle that used to belong to your family just fine. It was designed that way. Houses with vampires living in them don't seem to obey that rule, either."

Aelita nodded. "I remember," She murmured. She sat down in-between Lukas and Suzy, and she wished she had a book to read. There was a silence, and all four teens jumped when Lukas' phone rang.

He answered it quickly and said, "Hello? What's up, Jeremy? That's fine. Take your—" Lukas stopped talking suddenly and looked at his phone. "Did he really just hang up on me?"

"What did he say?" Aelita asked, and Shiloh fluttered her butterfly wings.

"I think he said that he'd be late, but he also could've said that he was going on a date…" Lukas said, and he shoved it in his pocket, no longer in the mood, and the room fell quiet.

The silence became painful after a while. Shiloh raised her eyebrows slightly and sucked in her bottom lip a bit before she grabbed the pile of blankets and placed them in another room. "If you're tired, you can go to sleep at anytime you want…"

"Uh, do you have a mattress of some sort…?" Suzy asked, pushing a red curl behind her ear. The heat had made her hair frizz, and what had earlier been a strand of hair that had slipped through her gold earring had frizzed so completely that it filled the entire hoop. "I'm not sleeping on the dirt. It's bad enough that my hair makes me look like Ms. Frizzle."

Shiloh looked at her innocently, and she asked, "Who?"

"Right. No TV here. Or books." Suzy sighed. "She's a fictional character. Don't worry about it."

The pixie shrugged. "Alright, then." She pointed to a doorway with a pale grey curtain that was void of decoration. "My parents and I sleep through there on pallets, if that's what you're asking…"

The human nodded, stood and walked to the room Shiloh had indicated, Aelita on her heels. When the pink haired girl looked in, she saw two bare mattresses with no frames lying on the floor. Suzy knelt down with her heels raised and pushed down on it. "Hey, Shiloh, what's this made out of?" She called out, and Aelita, too, pushed down on it. It was scratchy and rough, and when she looked at it closer, they looked more like square pillows stuffed into round pillowcases than mattresses.

"Um, well, the outside is wool and the inside is hay, I'm pretty sure. I don't really know." The pixie called from the other room. "You can take mine, if you want."

Aelita stood and left the room, and she sat next to the door. "Are you alright, Aelita?" Lukas asked.

"I'm fine," She muttered.

"Are you sure?" Shiloh asked, "Is something the matter?"

"No, it's just…" Aelita paused. "…you barely even know us and you're offering us all you have. I'm just not really comfortable taking it, Shiloh."

"Oh. I'm sorry…" Shiloh apologized.

"Why are you apologizing? You did nothing wrong."

"I make you uncomfortable, don't I? You just said so."

"That's not what I said, and even if it was, it's not what I meant!"

"But you are uncomfortable here."

"I—well—um—sort of."

"Can I do anything to make you feel better…?"

"Can I have a couple of blankets? I don't want to take your bed."

Shiloh nodded and passed her a couple of blankets. "Can I have some, too, please?" Lukas asked, and Shiloh handed him the same.

* * *

"Morning, Lukas," Suzy greeted the following morning. Lukas had awakened at least an hour before Suzy, but Shiloh and her parents hours before either of them. The sun illuminated the room, and Shiloh waved good-bye to her parents as they left. "Morning, Shiloh." Suzy added. "Is Aelita up yet?"

"No. She's still asleep, if I recall. She must be exhausted." Shiloh responded.

"Oh." Suzy said. "Well, that stinks."

"Your parents going to work, Shiloh?" Lukas asked, and Shiloh doodled in the dirt with her toes.

"I suppose. Most of the adults in the village go into the rice fields early in the morning and don't return until just before the sun sets." Shiloh shrugged. "The only adults who don't are the elderly, but we only have a few elderly…"

Lukas nodded, and Suzy fiddled with her hair. "Lord. I knew I should've used conditioner the night before last." She muttered as Aelita walked from the sleeping room with her blankets folded and in hand. "Morning, Aelita." Suzy greeted, and she pulled a hair band from her pocket and tied her hair back in a ponytail.

"Morning." Aelita smiled as she passed the blankets back to Shiloh. "Did Jeremy show up last night?" She asked hopefully.

"Do you see him here?" Lukas asked, and Aelita shook her head. "Then no."

Aelita sighed, and Shiloh patted her shoulder in a friendly way. "It's alright. I'm sure he'll turn up soon…" She comforted, and Aelita nodded. "I've got to go down to the river again to wash the raw wool I have for market. You can come with me and see if he shows up, if you want." Shiloh offered, and Aelita smiled.

As the pink haired girl bent down to grab her shoes, she accepted the offer with, "That sounds fine." Aelita sat down to put on her shoes and Shiloh grabbed a basket.

* * *

Aelita watched as Shiloh grabbed clumps of wool—which were white, off-white at most—and dunk them into the water of the Malinaw River. When she pulled them out, they were either grey or grey-brown, depending on the size of the clumps. The smaller clumps kept the brownish tint of the water, but the larger clumps seemed to spread the tint out until it wasn't noticeable. "I'm sorry, but that's disgusting." Aelita commented, and Shiloh smiled.

"You said it," She agreed. "But the people of my village don't seem to mind. Wool is needed for blankets and clothes for those younger than me and the elderly. I tend to get good enough trades for this." Shiloh grabbed another clump, and Aelita did as well.

She mimicked Shiloh's movements, and when she pulled her clump from the water, Aelita did the same. As the cycle repeated again, Aelita asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what's this river polluted with, anyway?"

"The usual," Shiloh shrugged. "Byproducts of vampire technology. Leftover raw meat that the vampires threw out. Garbage. Waste."

Aelita's eyes widened with disgust. "When you said 'waste,' did you mean…?"

"Yes." Shiloh didn't wait for Aelita to finish.

The human girl jumped up and dropped the clump she held in her hands into the extra basket Shiloh had brought for the 'cleaned' wool. "_Augh!_" Aelita cried out. "That's _so_ _gross!_ Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"You didn't ask." The pixie pointed out.

"You actually _drink_ this?"

"Yes."

"_Ew!_" She almost cried, partly from guilt, partly from shame and partly from pity, but mostly from disgust.

Shiloh reached back to grab a clump, but when her hands didn't grab the wool, she looked back and saw she finished. "On the bright side, we finished cleaning the wool."

"'Cleaning?' Are you insane?" Aelita asked. Shiloh shrugged, and the human girl sighed. She looked up to the sky, and she muttered, "It's past noon, I think. Where's Jeremy…?"

Shiloh looked past Aelita and across the river. As she stood, she pointed across the river. "Is that him?" She asked, and Aelita turned. "I wouldn't know."

After squinting, Aelita's eyes brightened. "_Jeremy!_" She called out, hopping the stones in the river. Shiloh shouted something at her, but Aelita ignored the pixie. She ran and embraced the elf boy, and she said, "There you are! I missed you! This place is horrible!" Jeremy was flustered a bit, but he smiled. Aelita stopped hugging him and stepped back with her hands on her hips. "Where have you been? When you said you were going to be late, I assumed that you'd at least be here this morning!"

Jeremy rubbed the back of his head. "I got held up by one of Laurelei's henchmen." He explained. "So, what's the deal? I mean, you could have easily come back to Earth…"

Aelita's eyes seemed panicked. "Did you see Laurelei? Or just her henchman?"

"Just her henchman. Why?" Jeremy responded.

"Okay, good. We must still have time." Aelita sighed.

"Aelita, what is this all about?" The elf boy asked as he removed his coat.

"Vampires," The human girl muttered, and then she spoke up when she added, "Xana and Laurelei were plotting with the vampires to completely wipe out the human race. Laurelei is supposed to come here when the Passage Tower is red and tell the Vampire King that his troops can attack Earth."

Jeremy's eyes widened. "I know Xana hates humans, but to completely wipe them out…? Is that even possible?"

"I suppose." Aelita shrugged. "The vampires have complete control of Lyoko and they have since they took over the throne over fourteen thousand years ago. They have fourteen thousand years worth of generations, not to mention the generations before that…"

"That's true. Their army must be massive." Jeremy agreed. "Not to mention they have the Xanadu's army on their side, which pretty much includes every creature on the face of the planet Earth."

"Would the Xanadu risk sending out their army? They are _magical_ creatures, after all. They aren't supposed to exist." Aelita pointed out, which was answered by a silence. She narrowed her eyes and said, "You _didn't_."

"Look, it wasn't my fault! Some idiot ripped off my headband! I don't even know if they believe I'm real or not!" Jeremy defended himself.

Aelita huffed. "Well, no use crying over spilt milk." She shrugged. "What we should really be doing is finding a way to stop Laurelei from releasing the vampires on Earth."

"We _could_ destroy the Passage Tower. Even if they are released, if we destroy the tower they won't be able to go back to Lyoko before the sun rises on Earth." The elf boy suggested.

"Yes, but we could also leave creatures stranded here on Lyoko, and if we destroy it before the vampires are released on Earth, they'll be the ones facing the vampires' wrath." The human girl countered. "Besides, workers have been trying for days to demolish that thing, and they're no closer than when they started. Do you even know where we would begin?"

Jeremy thought for a moment. "No," He admitted. He peered around Aelita, and he pointed to something. "Is that the pixie Lukas told me about?" He asked, and Aelita turned. She nodded, and when Shiloh finally reached the duo, Jeremy smiled and said, "Hi. I'm Jeremy."

Shiloh hesitated and looked to Aelita, who nodded. "My name's Shiloh." She introduced herself. She shifted the baskets to hold them on her hip. "Aelita, we need to go back to the hut. I need to pick up the last few things for the market I need before I leave." She looked to Aelita as she spoke, and Aelita nodded again. The girls started walking back for the river, and Aelita turned and motioned for Jeremy to follow her.


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter Nine: Terra Incognita_

Odd beat Lyna to clicking off the television. "This channel must seem like one of those fake news channels." He commented, and he added, "Too bad we know that what they're saying is true." Lyna nodded, and Yumi slapped down a card. Lyna and Odd had been watching the news—they usually were because the news was chock full of events that could be related to the Xanadu and their plans—while Yumi and Ulrich played a card game. Gus, who had been intently watching Yumi and Ulrich's card game, turned to face Lyna and Odd. "Too bad there were so many witnesses. It's sort of hard to knock something off as a lie when you had more than thirty witnesses."

"Tell me about it. 'Reports of an elf.' My brother is an idiot." Lyna agreed. "Did you see that? Some girl who had been there caught Jeremy on her cell phone, from the part where his headband was stolen to the part where he went into the tower and sent it in. You can see his ears move around when his emotions change." She rubbed her temple, and added, "Then they performed an autopsy on Laurelei's henchman, and it was revealed that he was 100% inhuman."

Yumi and Ulrich paused. "Your brother single-handedly revealed the existence of magical creatures to the majority of the human race, didn't he?" Ulrich asked rhetorically, and Lyna nodded. "Thank God that there's no creature police. He'd be arrested."

"He'd be shot," Yumi corrected. "But I see your angle."

Odd laughed half-heartedly. "Did you hear what that one guy said? He's going to collect all the pictures that the witnesses snapped of Jeremy to make tee-shirts. 'I'm a Believer' should be written on one." Odd grabbed his sketchbook and doodled a rough draft.

"And you know that he'll have a fan club." Gus added.

"When he comes back out of that tower with Aelita, Lukas and Suzy, he's going to have _three_ fan clubs." Odd said, "One for Aelita, one for Suzy and one for Lukas. Has anyone here met Lukas, anyway?"

"No. Jeremy met Lukas when he was analyzing the tower." Yumi responded. "That woman who's been watching the tower for the past few days will be waiting to jump them for an interview, and when he shies away, she'll follow him and find out where he lives. You just _watch_."

"Do you think he'll get any rights taken away?" Lyna asked, and the others looked to her. "I mean, I know Jeremy was born in France, but if he had been born here, would he be able to run for president? Will he be able to vote when he turns eighteen?"

"Good question. Does the United States' Constitution say anything about creatures?" Odd asked.

Lyna shrugged. "I don't think so. And what about the Air Force? He always wanted to be in the Air Force when we were little. Will he be able to join the Air Force?"

Gus tapped her shoulder, and she looked at him. "They have to prove he's not human before anything drastic happens."

Lyna nodded. "Birth defect. He could definitely claim he's got a birth defect."

Gus shrugged. "I don't know, Lynn, it'll be pretty hard to claim that when both his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on all have elf ears…"

Yumi motioned towards Gus. "He's got a point."

"I know he does," Lyna muttered.

Ulrich thought for a moment. "Going on what you said, Lyna, will Jeremy be locked up in a zoo?" He asked.

"Possibly. There will be those supporting locking him in a zoo, those supporting shooting him in the head, those supporting relocating him to a national park, those supporting him living his life any way he wants to…" Lyna listed on her fingers. "…those supporting giving him a green card and making him _proud_ to be an American, those supporting cutting off his ears and selling them on eBay, those supporting skinning him and hanging his pelt on their wall…

"Those supporting burning him at a stake, those supporting killing him simply because he'll become a martyr, those supporting bathing him in '_Axe_' and handing him over to the fan girls, those supporting crucifying him…" Lyna paused to look at Odd. "Odd, can I borrow your paw?" She asked, and Odd held it out to her. "Those supporting giving him his own TV show on MTV, those who support making comic books based off him, those supporting making him do things that are not exactly nice…

"Those supporting him joining a traveling freak show, those supporting him advertising cleaning products, those supporting giving him a part in a movie as a doctor who says 'I'm sorry to tell you this, ma'am, but your husband…' at this point he would remove his glasses, '…lived,' those supporting ripping him limb from limb…" Lyna stopped counting and shrugged. "And then there are people like me who don't give a crap."

"Well, I'm glad you found a platform out of those options." Odd said sarcastically.

"Well, there's the death platform, the celebrity platform, and the leave-him-the-hell-alone platform." Yumi said.

Ulrich pointed to her and added, "Don't forget the I-don't-give-a-crap platform." Yumi nodded and Ulrich slapped down a card. "Uno," He waved his card next to his head.

As the demigoddess and the golem scooped up the cards to start again, the wizard took out his wand and shook it to make orange sparkles fall out of the tip. "If he does get his own TV show, you know that we'd all be on it and during those parts of the show when the people on it talk, we _all_ know that Lyna will waste all of hers telling stories about the funny parts of Jeremy's gancanagh addiction." Gus twirled her wand around and the sparkles formed a silhouette of a movie camera.

"Oh, like the time he snuck Laurelei into our house for a month and Mom only found out when he slipped down the stairs half naked!" Lyna laughed as she recalled the tale.

The actual story was that Jeremy's dad had been away on business and he'd phoned home during that month, and Lyna's mom had called Jeremy down to talk to him. Jeremy ran down the stairs with a bare chest and trying to do up his pants when he slipped on his pants' leg. He had recovered quickly from the fall and took the phone from Kya, but she found it suspicious and went up to his room.

Needless to say, the result was not pleasant, but that only made the story funnier to recall.

Gus and Yumi laughed right along with Lyna, and Ulrich joined in when he remembered what they were laughing about. Odd laughed slightly because the idea of Jeremy slipping down the stairs half naked was amusing, but he had no idea what they were talking about. "Oh! What about the time where he lost focus when he was practicing his powers and accidentally smacked himself in the head?" Ulrich suggested, which caused more laughter.

"And the time where he was walking and talking and he walked and talked himself right into a wall!" Yumi went right along with the mood of the moment.

"Don't forget that time where he was trying to impress Laurelei on a jet ski and he went under the trampoline!" Gus added, motioning with his right hand how Jeremy went under.

As the others laughed, Odd nodded with a smile and asked, "Can we continue this conversation with something I was here for?"

"Sorry, Odd," Lyna apologized. She looked to Gus quickly and asked, "How'd he go under it, anyway? Why didn't he just drag it with him?"

"Don't you remember? He went under the first one and dragged the second one." Gus responded, and Lyna nodded with a slightly-evil smirk.

"Um, hello? Clueless here!" Odd interrupted. There was a silence, and then Odd looked to Lyna and asked, "Did he really slip down the stairs half naked?"

"Oh yeah, totally! You should've seen his face!" Lyna reassured him. "It was frigging hilarious!"

There was another silence, the only sound being the snapping of cards as Yumi and Ulrich continued their card game. Yumi paused their game and said, "So, what are we going to do to help Jeremy?"

"I don't think he needs our help," Lyna shrugged. "Jeremy's smart. He'll figure a way out of this situation on his own."

There was a pause before all five of them burst out into hysterical laughter. After a few minutes, the laughter died down and Yumi asked, "No, seriously, what should we do?"

As they seriously pondered that question, there was no sound. Odd picked up his sketchbook to help him think, Lyna started a video game, Ulrich and Yumi looked at their cards and Gus drew pictures in the air with his wand. The five creatures paused what they were doing, and Ulrich said in an unenthusiastic tone, "Let's go get him." There were mutters of agreement as each of them put down what they were doing and stood to climb the stairs.

* * *

"_Save the elf! Save the elf! Save the elf!_" Protesters shouted at the yellow bulldozers that had arrived to force the tower over, and the protestors formed a human wall to keep the bulldozers from knocking it over. It hadn't snowed in a while, and some of it had melted. Gus drove over revealed gravel, his van's tires making the sound tires do when they drive over gravel. He parked a ways into the snow, and Lyna pulled the handle to open the passenger door, but it didn't.

She sighed, and said, "Gus, the passenger door froze over again."

"I'm sorry if it isn't suited for heavy winter weather in autumn." Gus said, and Lyna leaned back and kicked the door once, and when it didn't open, she kicked it again, harder. It swung open quickly. "Careful!" The wizard warned.

Lyna tightened the bandana she'd tied to hide her ears and tossed her red hood over her head. She hopped out of the van and sat cross-legged on his hood. She stared at the tower and waited for Jeremy to appear from it.

"_Save the elf! Save the elf! Save the elf!_" The protestors chanted, punching their signs in the air. A worker who sat inside the bulldozer jumped out and approached the crowd. He looked to every protestor in the front row of the wall.

"What is going on here?" He shouted, crossing his arms adamantly.

A woman with messy red hair and 1970's-style round glasses with pink lenses stepped forward with a picket sign that read '_Elves are no smaller than men, and walk as men do, in this world,_' which was a quote said by poet Denise Levertov. It was wordier than most signs, but the woman found it fitting. "That poor boy is inside that tower! Imagine! He must be scared to death!" The woman shouted, pointing to the tower.

The worker adjusted his yellow hardhat, and it mussed his mousey brown hair. His hazel eyes were covered by goggles. "Look, lady, I don't care if you stand here with your motley crew all day. I get paid by the hour. I know that the boy was convincing, but this is obviously some sort of hoax." He adjusted his goggles skeptically.

"What about the man with green skin? The paint that made him seem human came off, but his green skin won't." The woman pointed out, frustrated.

"Tattoos, lady—T-A-T-O-S. Tattoos." The worker said, spelling 'tattoos' incorrectly.

The woman stared at him. "Open your mind, man, to the possibilities!" She called out, and she added, "Is it impossible that he's an elf?"

The worker nodded. "Yes. They don't exist. So therefore he can't be one."

The woman sighed. "Switch!" She shouted to her wall of humans, and they flipped their signs around. Instead of signs that spoke of protecting an elf, they spoke of protecting a boy. The woman's sign had another quote, but it was shorter—'_How can I ignore the boy next door?_' which was a quote said by Ralph Blane.

"I'm just doing my job!" The worker shouted.

"Your job is endangering that poor elf boy—oh, I'm sorry, I forgot you were a non-believer. Your job is endangering that poor boy dressed as an elf." The woman smirked. "How about I call your boss and tell him that?"

"My 'boss' is the mayor of this town!" The worker snapped. "My late co-worker told that 'poor boy' that the structure was off-limits. It's not my problem anymore!"

'It's not my problem anymore.' The words struck Lyna harshly. "_Excuse me!_" She shouted, and she stomped over to the worker, melting the snow where she stepped and leaving small puddles in the center of her footprints. "That's my brother you're talking about! If he's stuck inside something that is scheduled to be demolished by you, you better make sure that he's your problem and you better make sure he _stays_ your problem until he's out of harm's way and back with me! _Do_ _you understand the words coming out of my mouth?_" Lyna continued, small sparks flying from her mouth, like it often did during high emotional stress in winter.

"And who are you, little girl?" The worker asked in a mock-sweet tone.

Lyna resisted the urge to smack him.

"Didn't I _just_ tell you who I was?" She asked, and added, "I'll repeat myself. That's my brother inside of the tower! So obviously I'm the elf boy's sister!"

There was a commotion, which caused Odd to open his door and join Lyna by the worker and the woman. Odd tapped Lyna's shoulder and asked, "Lyna? What do you think you're doing? You aren't helping the creature situation!" Odd had pulled a hat over his ears, which mussed his hair and gave it a strange appearance, pulled his coat's sleeves over his paws and tucked his tail into his pants to hide his cat-like features.

"Oh, come off it, Odd; Jeremy already revealed our existence, and he's got to come out of the tower eventually." Lyna said. "If we're going to help him, the most we can do is to stall the tower's demo." She opened her mouth to snap once more at the worker when she was forced around by the woman and the cameraperson. "Oh, look—if it isn't Mrs. Eccentric and her personal downfall documenter. How can I help you seem crazier today?" Lyna asked sarcastically.

The woman ignored her. She normally had perfectly styled brown hair, but after the discovery of elves, it stuck out in many places. The woman yanked off Lyna's hood and then her bandana—designed to look like the American flag—this revealing her elf ears. She smoothed her suit and skirt, both maroon, and then she smoothed her hair with a smile. She held her microphone up to her mouth and said, "This is Naomi Raborg* with more news about the rumored elf boy. I'm here with the self-announced sister of the elf boy, and as you can see, she appears to be elfin, too. Coincidence? Perhaps. Now, what's your name?" Naomi held the microphone to Lyna's confused face. "Don't be shy. You're only on live television."

Lyna looked to Odd, then over to Gus, Yumi and Ulrich, who watched with wide eyes from the van. "Uh… I'm Lyna Kiovote…" She muttered shyly.

In the van, Gus reached into his glove box and pulled out a portable television. He pulled out the antenna and flicked it on. Yumi and Ulrich looked down over the driver's seat as Gus tuned in to the local channel that Naomi Raborg reported for. Lyna was on-screen, and the strip used for identification read '_Lena Keyohvohteh, rumored elf boy's sister_.' "God damn it," Ulrich raised his eyebrows in shock. "That's completely wrong."

"And, Miss Kiovote, you're an elf, correct?" Naomi Raborg asked, turning her microphone back to herself before pointing it back to Lyna.

"Why, yes, Naomi Raborg, I am an elf." Lyna said, temporarily recovering from her shyness. "And you're a human. Why, the world is full of novelties, isn't it?"

Naomi Raborg's eyebrow twitched. "Snippy, aren't you?"

Lyna smiled. "Yes. Yes, I am." Naomi tried to hide the urge to pinch Lyna hard, but she failed immensely. The elf girl smirked and added, "I am _not_ trying to be _annoying_."

She was obviously sarcastic at that point.

Naomi Raborg rubbed her forehead. "So, Miss Kiovote, is your brother an elf as well?"

"Are you really good at asking bad questions?" Lyna asked, and while Odd laughed and the cameraperson snickered, but Lyna was confused at their amused reaction because she was being completely serious.

"Answer the question." Naomi Raborg demanded.

"Yes, he is. I saw the video that the girl sent in. You pulled on his ear and it didn't come off. Hello? Obvious much?" Lyna placed her arms in the standard 'what' position.

"Why are you being so rude to me?" Naomi Raborg sounded genuinely hurt.

"I'm sorry," Lyna placed her hands on her heart as she apologized sincerely. "When I get jumped for interviews by vicious media sharks looking for the scoop of the century, I tend to get rather unpleasant."

Naomi Raborg looked up to the sky. Lyna looked up there, too, but she didn't see anything**.

Naomi Raborg looked down the ground before back to Lyna. She huffed and said, "Can you confirm or deny the rumors that your brother is keeping this structure intact?"

"Oh, I can deny that…" Lyna nodded. "…but I can confirm that I have no idea what _is_ keeping this **tower** intact." She emphasized 'tower' so the viewers knew that it was a tower. "However, my bet's going on that the only person who can destroy a Passage Tower is a Passage Knight."

"So, this structure. It's called a tower—" Naomi Raborg began.

"A Passage Tower, to be exact." Lyna corrected.

"And your brother. Is he a Passage Knight?" Naomi Raborg asked.

Lyna took a breath with a smile, and then she paused, thought for a moment, and her smile vanished. "No," She finally said. "I thought you were going to ask something different. No, my brother is not a Passage Knight. Only humans can be Passage Knights."

"Can anyone become a Passage Knight?" Naomi Raborg asked. She was beginning to get interested, but her time slot would end soon and the remainder of the interview would have to be displayed at a later time. Or an earlier time, seeing as how it was past midnight.

Lyna looked at her. "What?"

"Can anyone become a Passage Knight?" Naomi Raborg repeated. "Is there some sort of school for it? Online classes?"

"Oh, yeah, just go to .com!" Lyna shouted sarcastically. "Of course not, you big dummy! You're dealing with human deities of magical creatures! What in this world and the next made you think that you could take a stupid online class?"

"Well, forgive me for asking…" The interviewer straightened. "I just assumed that if someone could become a Passage Knight that this situation would be resolved much faster."

"You can't become a Passage Knight," Odd said before Lyna could snap again. "From what Einstein said the other day, it's most likely passed on from parent to kid."

"And who are you?" Naomi Raborg asked, pointing the microphone to Odd.

"Odd Della-Robbia." Odd said in a tone that suggested it was common knowledge. The interviewer obviously wanted to know more, and he said, "I'm a friend of J—the elf boy's…" He glanced to Lyna, who shrugged.

The identification strip read '_Odd Dellah-Robea, friend of rumored elf boy_.' "Well, that's not so completely terrible," Yumi shrugged. "It's more spot-on that Lyna's name was."

Naomi Raborg reached for Odd's hat, and he smacked her hand away. "What? Are you an elf, too?" She asked.

"Not even close," Odd shook his head. "But you are _so_ not touching my hat."

"Fine. Back to Passage Knights. Do you know any?" Naomi Raborg provoked.

"Sure do," Odd nodded.

"But their identities will not be revealed at this time." Lyna interrupted.

Naomi Raborg huffed. She stood up straight and looked at the camera. "Passage Tower? Passage Knights? Another mystery unfolds in this fairy-tale of a case. Stay tuned for more information as it comes. This is Naomi Raborg, signing off."

Odd dragged Lyna back to Gus' van as she turned to shout at the worker again. "_Save the boy! Save the boy! Save the boy!_" The protestors had changed their chant to make the workers in bulldozers think about what they were doing.

* * *

*I probably could've given her a name sooner. Oh, well. It's actually symbolic because a couple of years ago I went to this thing with my school and I was a reporter, and so was this other girl. Her first name was Naomi and her last name started with an 'R,' but I don't think they looked anything alike. She does seem to be going crazy though, doesn't she?

**This moment has been brought to you by Junie B. Jones.

* * *

A/N: Admit it; the idea of Jeremy slipping down the stairs half naked _is_ amusing!


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter Ten: Ash to Ash_

Aelita stared off into the distance. She knew that mountains blocked the east and west sides of the Puril Damuhan, but it seemed like the north, towards the tower, was where the Puril Damuhan separated the eastern mountains from the western mountains. To the south, there was more of the Puril Damuhan, but to the southeast, there seemed to be a forest. The sun sank below the western mountains, but Aelita didn't give the impression of noticing. The only thing she did notice were the floating lights that floated up towards the sky. The lights were yellow, and they surrounded the forest like an aura. "Aelita! Get inside! The sun's gone down!" Shiloh shouted to her, and Aelita looked to her. "What are you doing?" Shiloh asked her when she approached her nervously.

"I'm looking at the forest over there." Aelita explained, and she pointed to the southeast. "There's some sort of light coming from it."

Shiloh looked to the southeast, and she squinted her eyes. "I don't see it…" She muttered, and then she looked to the pink haired girl and pulled gently on her arm. "We need to go back inside. Don't you remember? Vampires hunt at this time of night…"

Aelita looked to Shiloh in shock. "How do you _not_ see it? It's _glowing!_" Aelita said, looking back to the forest. It was still there, and the lights still came off from it. "Not to mention it's massive…"

Shiloh looked again, but still saw nothing. "You're crazy," She said, and she dragged Aelita towards the hut. "C'mon now, I got some human curios for some of my wool." She tried to bribe the human girl, but she seemed adamant about making Shiloh see the forest.

"Shiloh! What's the matter with your eyes? Are you going blind? I know its dark, but for crying out loud, it's _glowing!_" Aelita's voice became louder, and Shiloh motioned for her to quiet down. "Just look!" Aelita begged, and Shiloh grabbed her hands and shook her head while begging her with her eyes. "What are you so afraid of?" She asked, and it was responded by the sound of rustling grass.

Shiloh grabbed Aelita's wrist and tugged at her to enter the hut. Aelita stared into the grass, refusing to move. Shiloh released her wrist long enough to look into the hut and ask for help. Jeremy joined Aelita and Shiloh outside, and he looked into Aelita's eyes and asked, "Are you alright?"

Aelita blinked, and she said, "Yeah, fine. Can you see the glowing forest over there?" She pointed to the southeast, and Jeremy followed her finger into the direction of the forest. He was silent for a moment.

"If I say yes, will you go inside?" He finally asked, glancing to Aelita quickly.

"Depends," Aelita shrugged. "Can you really see it?" When Jeremy paused to think of an answer, Aelita's eyes subconsciously began to glow pink like they had the day before when she was trying to get Shiloh to trust her. "Don't lie to me, elf boy." She warned him.

Jeremy stiffened. "No, I can't see it." He said, and he blinked his eyes a couple of times before shuddering and relaxing again. He glared at her. "Don't do that. It feels weird."

Jeremy turned, and he and Shiloh dragged Aelita inside. "Do what?" She asked innocently as Shiloh fixed the curtain. Jeremy stared at her strangely, and Aelita simply stared back.

"Since when have you been able to do that, anyway?" He asked.

"Do what?" Aelita asked.

"That thing. Where you pushed your will over mine." Jeremy said, which clicked a light on in Aelita's head.

"I'm not sick here," She murmured. She smiled briefly, but it disappeared as soon as it came. "Of course, that doesn't make this place any less horrible, but…" She shrugged.

Suzy, Lukas and Shiloh looked at her strangely. "Um, what do you mean 'you're not sick here'?" Lukas asked, looking at Aelita with his head tilted slightly.

Aelita looked back to him. "On Earth, I've got an illness that prevents me from using my powers." She paused for a minute. "It also stunted my growth and makes me cry blood occasionally, but that's a different story. Anyway, when I came here, Shiloh said that the power I possessed meant I was definitely the heir, and then, just now, Jeremy said that I pushed my will over his…" She thought for a moment. "I haven't done that since…" She shook her head and sat down.

There was silence for a while as the others pondered that. Shiloh coughed and said, "I know that the Kaliwanagan is the power that your family possess, but an illness that takes it away…? I've never heard of such a thing." She looked at the others before adding, "Quite frankly, I just thought that the Kaliwanagan was a defensive power. Just something that prevented uprisings…"

"I haven't been able to use it freely since I was five years old. On Earth, I can heal others and summon my wings, but that's about it…" Aelita muttered. "So I don't even know the full extent of my powers—or, um, the Kaliwanagan, I suppose."

There was a bright light from outside the curtain, then someone pounded on the mud brick walls and shouted for someone to answer. The five teens jumped, and Shiloh motioned for the humans to get as far back as they could. She pulled the curtain back and looked in horror at a vampire. The vampire was dressed in black British-style uniform. His skin was very pale and his eyes were red, but his immortal face seemed aged and wise. There was a younger-looking vampire behind him, his hair pale yellow and his uniform newer than the shabby one the older-looking vampire wore. He also carried a torch. Shiloh swallowed and asked, "Can I help you gentlemen?"

The older vampire removed his hat, revealing his white hair that was slicked back and shiny, and spoke politely. "Pardon my colleague, young lady, but he gets impatient easily, which is why he shot the flare and shouted. My name is Major Richard Winston, and one of our scouts—this lad right here, actually—claims that you and an elf dragged a human inside your home. Is this true?"

Shiloh flushed and stuttered. "I—uh—I mean—well—you see—" She was interrupted by the younger vampire.

"Look, Major! See how she stutters? She must be hiding something!" The vampire shouted.

"Be calm, son." Major Winston placed his hand on the younger vampire's shoulder. "Imagine yourself in her shoes. Two vampires have just arrived at her doorway. She must be terrified." He stared at the vampire sternly before returning his attention back to Shiloh. "Go on, little lady."

"I did no such thing," Shiloh lied through her teeth, grateful that both vampires had their attention on her.

"I see," Major Winston nodded. "Well, just to make sure you don't, let me remind you of something." Winston got close to Shiloh's face. "Housing a human who is not a slave is a crime. Feeding a human that is not a slave is a crime. Clothing a human who is not a slave is a crime. Assistance of a human who is not a slave is a crime.

"And this may be the worst crime of all; lying to a vampire who is a soldier in the Vampire Army about housing, feeding, clothing or assisting a human who is not a slave is a crime punishable by being taken to Castle Phantasma…" Major Winston chuckled. "…and Lord knows what will happen to you there."

Shiloh gulped. "I can assure you, sir, I am not lying to you."

Major Winston stopped chuckling. He looked to her for a moment. "Okay, young lady, I believe you. Please remember that humans are dangerous and should be treated as such." Major Winston turned, tucked his hands behind his back slightly above the small of his back. He motioned for the younger vampire to follow him.

"Major, it's obvious that the pixie is lying!" The younger vampire whispered furiously when he caught up.

"I know, Lieutenant." Major Winston whispered back.

"You know and you're letting her get away with it?" The vampire lieutenant whispered once more.

Major Winston chuckled. "Of course not," He said. "Burn it," The vampire major ordered, and the lieutenant smirked. Major Winston had been referring to Shiloh's family hut, and the vampire knew as much.

"Sir, yes sir," He saluted his senior and turned back to the hut to light it.

* * *

"Disaster avoided," Shiloh sighed, and the humans released a breath. Jeremy didn't release a breath of any kind—he looked out the doorway at the two vampires as they walked away. "I can't believe that Major Winston believed me. I've heard stories about him. He's known for snuffing out human safe houses from towns away."

Jeremy watched as the blond vampire saluted Major Winston and turned back towards the hut.

"I'm sorry, Shiloh," Aelita apologized. "I didn't know that just being outside would endanger your family…"

The vampire grabbed a canteen and poured out the sandy contents in a circle around the hut.

"I should've told you," Shiloh smiled. "But, we're out of the woods now, so we can relax." She sat down in the dirt and positioned herself eagle-style.

The vampire made sure that the sandy material went entirely around the hut.

"Um, you guys?" Jeremy said, trying to grab the attention of the others, which didn't work entirely to plan. "I really think that we should get the hell out of here…"

The vampire poured a liquid on the roof and splashed it on the walls.

"Dang, if there was popcorn in this village, this moment would officially qualify for it." Lukas announced, mussing his hair to knock out some of the dirt. "A shower, too."

The vampire held his torch to the walls, then the roof.

"Guys, my suggestion is now not an option!" Jeremy shouted, which snagged the attention of the others. "The vampires are torching your hut!"

The vampire lit the sandy material around the hut.

Shiloh's eyes widened in shock. "_What_ did you just say?" She screamed.

"_The vampires are torching your hut!_" Jeremy shouted again, and he added, "You need to get out of here!"

"But, Jeremy, my parents!" Shiloh said, pointing to the room where Shiloh and her parents slept. "I can't just _leave_ them here to die!"

The fire spread quickly. It caught the tapestry-like curtain that served as the front door. Two parts of the roof collapsed in, and it set the baskets Shiloh used for carrying wool and the curtain for the sleeping room on fire.

"Jeremy, put it out!" Aelita shouted quickly, remembering that Jeremy could control water.

He tried, but he gave up and said, "I can't!"

Aelita looked at him strangely. "What? I thought that you could pull water from the air!" She shouted at him, recreating the motion he usually used when doing so.

"There _is_ no water in this air!" Jeremy shouted back, doing the motion he used to pull water from the air, but collecting nothing.

Another piece of the roof fell in, landing close to Aelita, Lukas and Suzy. Shiloh had left a blanket on the wall that they were closest to earlier in the day to dry, and while the fire did dry the blanket quickly, it also sent it into the inferno.

Shiloh ran for the sleeping room curtain. Jeremy ran forward and stopped her before she touched the curtain. "What are you doing? Let go of me! I have to get my parents!" The pixie girl screamed at him, tears welling up in her eyes and running down her cheeks.

"Are you fireproof?" Jeremy asked her, already knowing the answer. When she shook her head no, he said, "That's right! I, at least, have a sister who deals with fire and I'm used to it! Get out while you still can!" He ordered Shiloh and the others.

There was a pause. Lukas looked to Suzy, who tapped his arm, as if to tell him to go. When Shiloh hesitated, Suzy reached out and took her hand, leading her out of the hut. Aelita grabbed Jeremy's shoulder and forced him around. "Are you insane?" She asked, her face turning grey from ash.

"Probably," Jeremy agreed, much to Aelita's dismay. "Get out of here!" He ordered, and when Aelita simply stood there, he said, "I'm sorry, did I accidentally make it sound like you had an option?"

Aelita knew now that she could force her will over his.

A piece of the roof fell and set the blue and silver curtain on fire.

She knew that he'd hurt himself if he stayed in there.

The blanket next to her was completely on fire, and it fell limply to the ground.

"Please come with me, elf boy," She ordered, her eyes glowing pink like they did when she used that fraction of the Kaliwanagan, and Jeremy stiffened like it was working. But he simply shrugged it off and pulled down the curtain.

"You need to get out of here," He said, looking at Aelita with such pain in his eyes. Aelita shuddered, and without the light fading she searched his eyes for the source. She somehow made Jeremy's eyes glow the same pink color hers were glowing, and the scene she saw went from Jeremy standing in front of her with his hand resting on the doorway and his back to her to the Jeremy she first saw him as—shirtless, purple burns, the only difference being that his hair was loose instead of in the ponytail—standing in flames higher than the ones he and she currently stood in. The Jeremy she saw was clearly younger than the one that stood before her, his eyes blank and less experienced than the elf boy she knew. He took an offensive position, and she saw Lyna walk towards him, her hands in the universal 'slow down' position. 'I don't want to have to fight you, Jeremy,' Lyna said, her voice distant, and it retained a youthful quality. 'You're my brother. I love you. Please calm down.'

Jeremy said nothing at first, but then he said, 'I have my orders.' His voice, like Lyna's was distant.

'The orders Laurelei gave you?' Lyna asked bitterly. 'What did she say?'

'Burn your fucker of a sister down,' Jeremy said, his eyes still showing no emotion at all, and but he seemed to be aware of what he was doing. He lunged, and then when Lyna dodged him, he kicked her feet out from under her. She fell, and the sound her head made when it hit the floor overpowered the ear-blasting sound of all the flames crackling at the same time.

Aelita blinked, and Jeremy did as well. A piece of the ceiling fell behind Aelita, which scared her a little bit. "Aelita! What are you still doing here? Get out!" Jeremy shouted. The human girl looked him for a moment before she ran out of the hut.

"What took you so long?" Suzy demanded when she saw Aelita run out. "I was about to go in there after you!"

Aelita paused before she started. "I…" She stammered. "I tried to get Jeremy to leave with me. I was afraid he would hurt himself, and I even used the Kaliwanagan, but it didn't work…" She looked to her feet and wiped ash from her face.

Shiloh seemed upset for a moment, but then she asked, "What do you mean 'it didn't work'?"

"I mean it didn't work!" Aelita said in a loud voice. "I know how to do it, and I know I did it right, but he just told me I needed to get out!" She rubbed her arms, and she looked to the southeast, where the forest was. The yellow lights had changed colors to a blood red color. The glow was still there, but as they floated upwards, they left blood-light trickles behind them. The trickles faded completely before the red lights reappeared and floated up. Even from far away, the forest seemed angry. She took a couple of steps towards it, and then someone grabbed her shoulder.

"Where are you going?" Lukas asked, sounding impatient. "Jeremy will get mad if you're not here when he comes out…"

Aelita smacked Lukas' hand gently, ran towards the forest, and then turned around to face the others. "Tell him I'm going to the forest!" Aelita shouted, walking backwards as she did so.

"Forest?" Lukas asked himself, watching Aelita run out into the tall grass*. "What the hell is she talking about?"

Shiloh looked to him and said, "Oh, she was talking about that earlier. It's somewhere in the southeast, I think." She was quiet for a moment, and then realized Aelita was treading through the grass, she shouted, "What are you doing? There are vampires in that grass! Come back!"

Lukas looked to the southeast, but he saw nothing. "What forest? There's no forest there."

Suzy ran forward, and then called out, "_Aelita! Come back!_"

Aelita, in the distance, paused and looked back at them, arms in 'what' position. At the distance the others were at, they could see every moment in the grass, but Aelita could not. Shiloh, Lukas and Suzy shouted at her, "_Come back! Come back!_" She started to walk back, and then the grass shook in an area that was much too large to be the wind or a bunny rabbit. The others realized immediately what it was and shouted, "_Keep going! Keep going!_"

She turned around and kept running for the forest.

* * *

When he was sure that Aelita was out of the hut, Jeremy entered the sleeping room. Throughout the shouting and the building practically falling apart at the seams, Shiloh's parents slept on. He shook them awake, and they glared at him grouchily. "What do you want?" Shiloh's father asked, rubbing his eye in annoyance. "Is it too much to ask that after all day in the rice fields for a few minutes of peace?"

"Your hut is on fire!" Jeremy shouted over the crackling flames.

"You're joking," Shiloh's father started to close his eyes.

Jeremy stalked over to the doorway and grabbed the burning curtain. He showed it to Shiloh's parents and shouted, "Tell me again I'm joking!"

Shiloh's parents sat up in horror. They jumped up and Jeremy moved out of their way so they could exit. The elf followed the pixies out, and he stumbled a bit, his lungs filling with the ash that clung heavily to the air. He covered his mouth and glanced to the doorway quickly. He stumbled to it, and then through the flames that surrounded the hut. When he was through the flames, he coughed, but then he pushed his hair from his face. He looked to the others standing by the old well, and he looked to them strangely when he noticed that they were staring at him. "What are you staring at? Open the well," Jeremy demanded, and when they hesitated, he shouted, "Get going!"

Shiloh's family ran for the well and struggled to open it. Suzy bent down to help them. Lukas rushed to Jeremy's side and asked, "Jeremy, dude, are you alright?"

"Terrific," Jeremy coughed again. Lukas helped Jeremy stand up.

"You look a little rough around the edges," Lukas commented.

Jeremy shrugged and scanned the faces. "Where's Aelita?"

"She said she was going to the forest. I don't know about you, but I don't see no forest." The human boy shrugged.

"And you let her go _alone?_" Jeremy snapped his question, and Lukas held up his hands in defense.

He rubbed his neck before he responded. "I'm sure we would have followed her had we not seen a vampire in the grass…"

"You're really only digging yourself a deeper hole here, Lukas." Jeremy said, and he coughed again.

"I mean, we were closer to it than it was to her…" Lukas placed himself into a position that would allow him a quick getaway if Jeremy snapped. "It didn't follow her, anyway."

Jeremy opened his mouth to say something, but Suzy shouted from the well, "Its open, Jeremy! Why'd you want us to do that?"

Jeremy stumbled over to Suzy, and when he lost his balance, Suzy caught him. He focused on the water in the well and lifted it out. He mentally moved it over the hut and then dropped it on the fire. When the smoke cleared, little of the roof remained, and there were several holes in the walls. The top of the walls that were not protected by the edge of the roof seemed to be melting. Shiloh clapped her hands excitedly and ran over to Jeremy. She kissed him, and then hugged him before hugging and kissing her mother and father. Jeremy's facial expression looked more like the one someone would wear when they saw an oncoming tornado than one someone would wear after being kissed by a pixie.

Suzy and Lukas got a kick out of it.

Jeremy looked at them sternly and then ran for the tall grass. "Jeremy, where are you going?" Suzy shouted.

"I'm going to find Aelita!" He shouted back, and then he stumbled. Lukas and Suzy ran to his side and helped him up.

"You're injured," Suzy said, dusting off his shoulder, which had a considerable amount of ash piled on it.

Lukas nodded in agreement. "Aelita would never forgive us if we let you go after her like this."

Jeremy looked to both Lukas and Suzy. "Alright then, I see that I don't have your permission." He said, stretching and standing on his own.

"That's right," Suzy nodded triumphantly.

"I'm going anyway." Jeremy said as he ran southeast.

* * *

Aelita looked over the forest. The lights had seemed small when she looked at them from a distance, but when she saw them up close, each one was nearly twice her size. She ran her fingers over the bark, and she noticed the texture. Aelita stepped in-between the two trees that marked the entrance, and she heard what sounded like the twisting of a balloon. She looked further into the forest, and a path had formed. It was still forming as Aelita looked at it, and when she finally traced it with her eyes to its ending point, it turned to the right. The forest whispered her name:

"_Aelita,_

_Aelita,_

_Aelita,_

_Aelita,_

_Aelita,_

_Aelita…_"

She shuddered.

It continued:

"_Follow the path,_

_Follow the path,_

_Follow the path,_

_Follow the path,_

_Follow the path,_

_Aelita…_"

She looked around as it continued, and she saw nothing but the dark brown bark of the trees that seemed to stretch up forever, and when she looked back towards the path, a small red light approached her. She cupped her hands, and it landed inside them. She held it close to her to examine it, and it turned a very pretty and happy white. It floated away, and soon after it floated up to the sky, it turned yellow. Aelita looked back to the village, and the smoke had slowed considerably. The light that had made it obvious that there was a fire had vanished. "Jeremy must have finally put out the fire…" Aelita thought out loud.

The forest was silent for a moment before saying:

"_Jeremy,_

_Jeremy,_

_Jeremy,_

_Jeremy,_

_Jeremy,_

_Aelita…_"

There was another silence. Then, the forest added:

"_Thank you,_

_Thank you,_

_Thank you,_

_Thank you,_

_Thank you,_

_Aelita…_"

Aelita laughed. "I didn't do anything." She said. "Whoever put out the fire did the hard work. I assume it was Jeremy because he can control water."

The forest rumbled, as if it were laughing, too. The more it spoke, the more voices it seemed to speak in:

"_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Awaken my brothers…_

_Aelita has returned._"

* * *

*Watch out for wild Pokémon!

* * *

A/N: The title makes sense now, doesn't it? Aelita went from the fire to the forest. The fire creates ash, and the forest has ash _trees_. I'd also like to say that the forest scene is my favorite. I could just see that in my head, and I think that it was so pretty.

* * *

Updated: Urgh! The forest text is supposed to look cooler than that! Too bad doesn't have the right allign button! Most of it goes 'Left-Center-Right-Left-Right-Center,' but the long one goes 'Left-Center-Right-Left-Right-Left-Center-Right-Center.' But I'm just going to center it all. Which is way less cool. Also, the last line of everything the forest says is the same tree. Well, the sixth line for the last one, but the last line of the last one is the sixth tree, too. One last thing: the forest is going on the offical character list, but Shiloh's parents aren't.


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter Eleven: Into the Woods_

Aelita walked down the path the forest had created for her. As her mother said what seemed almost like a lifetime ago, 'Your curiosity can get the best of you sometimes,' she'd started down the path without even thinking what could await her when she reached the end of it. But the voices of the forest seemed to wake up the further she went in. When she paused at the turn of the path, a tree in front of her shivered, like it was trying to wake up the furthest points of its limbs. When Aelita jumped, the forest reassured her:

"_Be not afraid,_

_Be not afraid,_

_Be not afraid,_

_Be not afraid,_

_Be not afraid,_

_Aelita…_"

As Aelita opened her mouth to respond, something landed on her head. She reached up and took it off her head, and she examined it. It was a blossom, the outermost parts of the petals white, and it turned pink the closer the petal got to the center. "Thank you," She smiled. "This is gorgeous."

She waited for the forest to respond, but it said nothing. As she began to walk again, it let out a contented sighed. Aelita smiled again, and she looked to each tree she passed. Soon, the original part of the forest was out of sight, and the forest said:

"_Good evening,_

_Good evening,_

_Good evening,_

_Good evening,_

_Good evening,_

_Aelita…_"

"Good evening," Aelita greeted. She thought for a moment, and she asked, "If I may, why do you want me to follow this path?"

The forest hesitated. When it spoke, it seemed more nervous:

"_I am afraid,_

_I am afraid,_

_I am afraid,_

_I am afraid,_

_I am afraid,_

_Without Aelita, I am afraid…_

_We are afraid,_

_We are afraid,_

_We are afraid,_

_We are afraid,_

_We are afraid,_

_Without Aelita, we are afraid…_"

Aelita was both flattered that she gave the forest courage and curious about what made them afraid. "Don't be afraid." Aelita smiled. "I'm here now. What are you afraid of?"

"_I am nothing,_

_I am nothing,_

_I am nothing,_

_I am nothing,_

_I am nothing,_

_Without Aelita, I am nothing…_"

The forest fell silent again, and the human girl felt her heart sink. "Who am I to you, exactly?" She asked the forest, looking around it, hoping for an answer. The forest remained silent. "Hello?" She called out, and the only person who responded to her was the echo own voice. Like when the forest had first begun to speak to her, one of the yellow lights floated down and landed in her expecting hands. It rubbed itself against Aelita's face, and it turned a white color as it did so. It floated away, but instead of floating up to the sky, it floated down the path, remained at the next turn for a second, and then floated down the path, as if to lead Aelita somewhere.

Aelita ran after it, almost slipping off the path as she turned. It waited for her to approach it at the next turn, and then continued down the path. Aelita laughed, and she called out, "Wait!" She made the next turn in a similar way as the previous one, and when she saw the light, it once again waited for her at the turn. It seemed like it was going to float down the path so Aelita would chase it again, but it didn't. Aelita caught up to it, and she stared at it as it turned red, the red looking like it was dripping down like blood. "What's the matter? Is something wrong?" Aelita asked first the light and then the forest.

The forest responded, sounding angry:

"_There is an intruder,_

_There is an intruder,_

_There is an intruder,_

_There is an intruder,_

_There is an intruder,_

_Aelita, there is an intruder in your forest…_"

"Who is it? Can you tell me?" Aelita asked, becoming nervous. The forest was silent, and the heard a whisper coming from the light in front of her.

"_Intruder will not harm Aelita, yes?_" The light whispered, and though the light remained red, it seemed to be a more vivid light than the rest of the lights. It began to fade, and Aelita held it gently. She held it up to her face, and she thought of Jeremy, hoping the warm feeling doing so gave her would pass on to the light. The light flashed pink, but then it returned to its red hue. It faded away, and the forest fell silent.

It made Aelita think about the Jeremy she saw in the fire. He'd been blank, but aware, and Lyna had tried to get him to come to his senses. He still attacked her, and when she hit the ground, the sound she made alone had indicated to Aelita that Lyna hadn't recovered immediately.

Aelita knew Lyna's powers dealt with fire. She knew that it was unlikely that Lyna would have been burned by it. But fire requires oxygen to burn, and eventually, Lyna would've died from lack of oxygen. She wondered what Jeremy had done after. It wasn't any of her business, but that didn't stop her from wondering.

The burns. It was the only indication that Jeremy had no idea what he was doing, and if he did, he couldn't think right anyway. Those purple burns on his skin… Aelita shuddered, and she remembered first seeing those burns. They had only been burns then; they had no meaning of anything more than he did something that left his skin damaged. Then she learned of Laurelei, and the gancanagh flashed through her mind. Aelita really did hate her with every muscle in her body, and the human girl realized what she was thinking. She banished the thoughts from her mind, and for the first time, she wished her powers worked on herself.

* * *

Jeremy collapsed in the grass. The night was still young, and he looked forward. He shook his head, and he muttered, "What am I doing? I can't see this forest. I don't know how far away it is…" He shook the negative thought away. "What if Aelita's in danger? I'd never forgive myself if she got hurt and I didn't even try…" He stood, and he looked to the burns on his hands and legs. He focused, his body becoming made of water, and while that calmed the burns, they still remained. The elf boy walked forward a few more steps, the motion hurting his burned skin. He huffed, wishing for not the first time to have powers that dealt with fire instead of water. The fire wouldn't have burnt him had his powers dealt with fire instead of water.

That being said, he thought, he also wouldn't have been able to get the gancanagh poison from Aelita's skin had his powers dealt with fire and not water. His lungs felt heavy, and Jeremy pushed his bangs from his face again. Jeremy looked forward, and he noticed something cut out of the grass. "Is that a dirt road?" He said as he walked to the point just before the dirt road started. He followed it with his eyes, and he jumped back when he saw the trees revealing themselves, and it appeared as if the trees showed their canopies before their trunks. When Jeremy hit the ground about a foot back, startled, the trees sunk back into the ground, disappearing. The elf boy stared wide-eyed at it, and he blinked.

"Oh, God," Jeremy breathed, and he stood shakily. He stepped forward again, and since he was expecting it the second time, he wasn't startled by the trees. He heard a sound like the twisting of a balloon, and the trees appeared again. "Okay, now I see it." He said, referring to the fact Aelita had _tried_ to tell them that there was a forest to the southeast, but he hadn't seen it.

The next thing he noticed was that the dirt road has disappeared when the forest revealed itself. Jeremy looked at the lights floating up, and he shivered as they went from yellow to red. "_Intruder… intruder… intruder…_" The lights hissed, gathering around him, and it looked like they were doing a strange, exotic and ominous dance.

There were different voices; deeper ones that sounded more masculine:

"_Intruder…_

_Intruder…_

_Intruder…_

_Intruder…_

_Intruder…_

_You are not welcome._"

Jeremy said nothing. Quite frankly, he was sure Laurelei had finally gotten to him and he'd simply gone insane. The trees rumbled, and the lights floated away. One light paused, and it examined Jeremy closer. It flashed pink, and then returned to red. It floated away, but instead of floating away to the sky, the light floated around the trees and further into the forest. It paused, as if it were waiting for him, and then it flashed pink. The pink light faded quickly and returned to red, but it still seemed to be waiting for him. Jeremy stepped into the forest, and he walked towards the light that remained.

The forest rumbled with anger. The masculine voices ordered:

"_Leave,_

_Leave,_

_Leave,_

_Leave,_

_Leave,_

_Or face the consequences…_"

The elf boy ignored it, and he walked to the light. When he reached it, it turned white and said, "_Jeremy!_" The white light seemed happier than the red lights that left blood-like trails. The white light repeated, "_Jeremy! Jeremy! Jeremy!_"

Jeremy smiled, and he laughed a little. "That's me," He said, and the white light seemed to dance. "What are you?" He asked, and he offered the white light one of his hands. The light flipped his hand over so the palm of it faced the forest floor, and then it rested on the top of his hand.

"_Jeremy! Jeremy! Jeremy!_" The white light addressed him, and then it floated deeper in. "_Jeremy will follow me, yes?_" The light called out before waiting for him further in the forest.

He shrugged, and he took a few steps in the direction of the light. The forest creaked, and he paused. The masculine voices called out angrily:

"_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_He was warned, my brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_My brothers…_

_Attack, my brothers._"

The white light seemed to panic, and it floated away quickly. Jeremy ran forward, and he called out, "Wait! Don't leave!" The forest floor became coated in a dense fog, and the elf boy tripped over something he couldn't see. He shook it off and stood, and when he did, he saw that the fog had grown higher. He ignored it, and he looked around for the white light. Jeremy saw something dark wrap around him, and he ran his fingers over it. It was rough, and soon after, his fingers were punctured by something sharp. He yelped, but then he bit his lip to dull the pain.

Whatever had him wrapped became sharp in other areas, puncturing his right arm, left thigh, right ear and his heels. It slashed his waist, left shoulder, left ear and right ankle. Jeremy flinched, and he flinched again when a delayed point slashed his face. He looked up, hoping to see the sky by seeing only darkness, and he wondered why his luck was so awful. The white light he'd seen slithered inside the dark prison, and its light made it clear to see that the prison was made of vines and roots. "_Jeremy? Is Jeremy alright?_" The light asked him, and he nodded. He could see that the points were long thorns on the vines. When he nodded, the thorn forced his flesh and clump together on the side opposite of the direction his head moved. "_I tell Aelita, yes?_" The light said, and it floated towards the way it came in.

"Wait a second!" Jeremy called out to it, and it paused. "You know where Aelita is?"

The light floated closer to him, and it felt like it patted him on his nose, as if to comfort him. "_Jeremy rest now. I tell Aelita, yes?_" The light ignored his question and slithered out of the vines and roots. Jeremy's eye twitched, the light's response not answering the question. Another delayed thorn shot out, puncturing him stomach. He yelped again, unable to hold it in, and he couched. His blood splattered against the wall of the vines and roots, and what blood didn't splatter decorated his lips and chin. He looked down to it, and he looked up to the sky.

As Jeremy closed his eyes, he laughed bitterly and said, "You were right, Aelita—this place is horrible."

* * *

Aelita refused to move until she received word of the intruder. She sat cross-legged on the path, and she rested her chin on her left hand. She doodled in the dirt with a stick, and for a second, she thought she heard someone call out to her, but she shrugged. She was startled by a white light as it floated in front of her. "_Aelita! Jeremy trapped!_" It said, panicking. "_Forest trapped Jeremy!_" It floated to her hair, and it felt like it yanked on it in the direction it came from.

"What?" Aelita asked as she raised her eyebrows. "Are you sure?"

"_Yes! Jeremy trapped! Aelita help, yes?_" The light bobbed up and down. Aelita nodded, her face stern.

"Forest!" She called out, coming to her feet. "Is it true you trapped Jeremy? If you did, please let him go!" Aelita placed her hands on her hips as she waited for the forest to respond.

When it did, the forest said:

"_My branches,_

_My branches,_

_My branches,_

_My branches,_

_My branches,_

_My branches see his sins._

_Our branches,_

_Our branches,_

_Our branches,_

_Our branches,_

_Our branches,_

_Our branches see his sins._"

Aelita rubbed her forehead with her thumb and forefinger. "I don't care what your branches see!" She shouted. "Let him go and bring him here!" She paused for the forest to respond.

The forest shuddered, and it replied:

"_Addiction…_

_Lust…_

_Wrath…_

_Falsehood…_

_Murder…_

_Our branches see his sins…_"

She shuddered. She shook off the feeling and looked to the trees. "I didn't recall asking for a list!" She complained. "And I don't recall saying that this was up for discussion, either! Bring him here!" Aelita stared up at the canopy, and she crossed her arms. "Alive, preferably."

The forest was silent, and then said:

"_Wish,_

_Wish,_

_Wish,_

_Wish,_

_Wish,_

_As you wish…_"

The forest fell silent again, and the white light seemed to dance around Aelita happily. Aelita smiled, and she offered her cupped hands to it, but as the light floated down to it, there was a creaking noise. Aelita's smile vanished, and she stared at a thick circle of vines and roots. It opened, and Jeremy fell out of it, bloody and worn out. Aelita ran for him, and the light floated quickly after her. "Jeremy!" Aelita called out, and she picked him up and rested the middle of his back on her knees. She wiped blood from his mouth and noticed the multiple puncture wounds and slashed skin. She placed him on the ground, and she touched the puncture wound he'd received on and in his stomach. Aelita winced as she absorbed it, her left hand accepting a massive wound.

"_Aelita! Jeremy! Jeremy!_" The light sang, and it rested on Aelita's shoulder. The other lights in the forest turned an upsetting blue. When the white light noticed the wound that Aelita had taken, it cried out, "_Aelita hurt! Jeremy hurt! I save both, yes?_" Aelita laughed at it a little, but the light floated to the hole in her hand, flashed pink, and then floated to Jeremy. When the human girl looked back to her hand, there was no trace left that there had ever even been a hole. The light landed on Jeremy's stomach—which no longer had a wound but still had remnants of the Kaliwanagan—and flashed pink. While the blood remained, he no longer had the puncture wounds or slashes. "_Yea! I save both, yes?_"

Aelita smiled, and she nodded. "Yeah, you did." She lifted Jeremy up, and she struggled a bit. Aelita was not very strong. She slung one arm around her shoulder and the other hung loose. She placed one hand on the arm resting on her shoulder, and the other she wrapped around the middle of his back. "Do you know if there's a place where I can take him so he can rest? He's passed out." Aelita called out to the forest.

When the forest spoke, it sounded upset:

"_No,_

_Create,_

_No,_

_Create,_

_No,_

_I will create one for you._"

There was the standard sound of a twisting balloon, and the path recoiled and changed directions. Instead of turning, like it had been seconds earlier, it went straight. At the end of the new path, there was a small shack, grey, made of some kind of wood with many knots and holes, and the roof was made of shingles and slanted. Aelita wondered if she could trust the forest after what it did to the elf boy who she had in her arms, but then she remembered that the forest hadn't done anything wrong up until that point. "Thank you," She said, and she followed the path.

The blue lights changed from blue to yellow. Aelita pushed on the door and found inside a chest of drawers, a bed and a chair. It was a small shack, so the three pieces of furniture took up most of the room. She dragged Jeremy over to the bed and placed him on it. She lifted his legs onto the bed after she had most of the rest of his body on it. Aelita then dragged the chair over and watched him for a second, and laughed when she remembered a story Lyna had once told her. "This isn't the first time you were dragged by a girl into a strange house and placed on a bed while you rested, huh?" She laughed again, but then face-palmed herself. "I'm talking to you and you can't even hear me. Does that qualify for pathetic?"

She pushed a stray hair from her face and placed it behind her ear. The world was quiet for a minute, and then the light said, "_Poor Jeremy…_" The light changed from white to blue.

Aelita nodded. "Yeah." She stood and wiped the remaining blood from his face. "Poor Jeremy." She added sympathetically, and the light floated over and landed on her shoulder. "I wonder how he found this place. He couldn't see it earlier when I pointed it out to him."

The light responded, "_Only Aelita see forest outside forest._" It paused before adding, "_Others see forest when in forest._"

"Oh," Aelita said, and the light floated in front of her. She pulled her sleeves over the palms of her hands and crossed her arms. She sat cross-legged on the floor, placed her crossed arms on the bed and placed her chin behind them. "Today was hectic…" She added, looking off into the distance before standing and closing the door.

When Aelita looked at the light again, it almost seemed to smirk. It turned pink and rested on Aelita's nose. "_Aelita tired?_" It asked.

She blinked. "Yes," She nodded.

"_Aelita rest now._" The light urged.

"No, I want to make sure Jeremy's alright." Aelita said, smiling nervously.

"_Aelita tired. Aelita rest now. I watch Jeremy, yes?_" The light floated off her nose and around her head ecstatically.

"No, really, I'm fine." Aelita said, trying to avoid the light.

"_Aelita tired. Aelita rest now. I watch Jeremy, yes?_" The light repeated, landing on her nose again. The light panicked again when Aelita nodded. "_Aelita please no shake head?_" It asked her.

Aelita blinked before she agreed.

* * *

A/N: The secret's getting to me. I'm not making up the language that's used sometimes. I use to translate English to Filipino. It looks like I made it up, but I didn't… also, Jeremy gets hurt a lot, doesn't he?


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter Twelve: Mythos_

Jeremy winced. His wounds still hurt, but they didn't seem to be bleeding. He stretched his arms, and he heard Aelita say, "Jeremy, stop fidgeting. You're hitting my forehead."

"Sorry," He apologized, smiling and he stopped stretching. She sounded close.

Too close, he realized.

He debated about opening his eyes. When he did, he saw that she was lying next to him, and her eyes were still closed. "_Holy shit!_" He shouted suddenly, and he jumped. Aelita's eyes snapped open, and she watched him as his reflexes made him jump. Jeremy fell down in the space between the bed and the wall. There was a pause, and then a muffled, "Ouch."

"Jeremy!" Aelita said, looking in-between the bed and the wall where Jeremy had fallen. The pom-poms on Aelita's sweater hung down over the edge. "Are you alright? Don't push it!"

"Terrific," Jeremy muttered, rubbing his head. "What are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, offering him her hand.

He took it. "Why were you lying next to me? You scared the living shit out of me!"

She pulled him up and moved so he could get out of the space. "Oh, that. Well, I got tired and the little light that told me to rest and it sounded so inviting…" She blushed, pushing her pointer fingers together. "…I didn't mean to scare you."

He looked to her, and he smiled. "It's fine." Jeremy shrugged. "Speaking of which, where it that light?" They looked around, but as he suggested, it was nowhere to be found. Aelita shrugged back to him. She walked over to the chair, and as she went to sit down, she noticed a tiny grey body lying on the arm.

"Well, would you look at this…" She murmured, looking at it closely. It had grey skin, darker grey hair and clothes and transparent wings. "It's pretty, but it looks dead." She added, and the elf boy knelt next to her to look.

"You're right," Jeremy nodded. "It does look dead." They looked at it for a while. Its dark grey hair reached just above the small of its back. Its shirt seemed to be just a round piece of cloth tied around her. The shorts were skin-tight and were very, well, short. The wings looked like dragonfly wings.

The duo was silent for a moment. "I'm afraid to touch it." Aelita said with a nervous laugh.

"Me, too." Jeremy said as the grey body opened its eyes and looked to them. Its eyes were a very pale grey, almost white. It fluttered its dragonfly wings.

"_Jeremy! Aelita! I do good, yes?_" The grey body asked, and its voice startled the teens. "_What? Why Jeremy and Aelita look scared?_" It pushed its hair behind a pointed ear.

"It's a pixie!" Jeremy announced excitedly, and the grey body nodded with a look on its face that said 'duh.'

"A pixie? That's impossible! They evolved to look like Shiloh thousands of years ago!" Aelita pointed out, and the grey body fluttered its wings angrily.

At the mention of Shiloh, Jeremy flinched. The grey body said, "_Aelita plant forest thousands of years ago! Pixies in forest no evolve because we wait for Aelita to return!_" It crossed its arms. "_I know all pixies in forest! Shiloh not pixie in forest!_"

"So that's why the forest said I returned!" Aelita said, her eyes widening. "I planted this whole forest?" She asked, offering the top of her hand to the pixie. It stepped onto it, fluttering her wings happily.

"_Not all trees._" The pixie smiled. "_But most. The ones that no planted by Aelita know about Aelita from stories._" The pixie flapped its wings and lifted itself off Aelita's hand, flying around her head and then flying around Jeremy's. "_Jeremy!_" It called out as it did so.

"Pixies don't have to fear vampires here." Jeremy smiled.

"_Not just pixies,_" The pixie landed on his nose, and he blew it off gently. "_Hey! I no like that! Beasties in the forest in general no fear vampires 'cause vampires no see forest!_" The pixie buzzed around Jeremy's head before tugging on his hair. "_Most beasties no see forest, anywho._"

"That's not a word," Jeremy said, referring to 'anywho.'

"_It is to me!_" The pixie sang as the human girl gently grabbed its waist and pulled it away so it would release elf boy's hair. It pushed on her fingers until it popped out, and Aelita turned her hand over so the pixie could stand on the top of her hand. The pixie marched on her knuckles. Its shoes were flat, dark grey and had bright ovals decorating the toes. "_I be here since Aelita planted forest. Other pixies be here since then, too._" It said, crossing its arms behind its back as it marched. "_We glow to show the forest mood. We glow with Aelita magic._"

"Oh!" Aelita said, her eyes widening. "You're the light I saw!"

The pixie nodded. "_Yuppers! I be same light Aelita saw and Jeremy saw!_" The pixie fluttered its wings and flew around the duo's heads.

"Do you have a name?" Jeremy asked, and the pixie flew over and fluttered its wings to remain airborne in front of his face.

"_Ligaya! I be Ligaya!_" The pixie sang, and it spun in place. When it stopped spinning, it was glowing, but only slightly so—not like it had been the day before when the teens couldn't tell what it was. Ligaya was glowing white, its skin was pale, its hair, eyes and clothing bright white. "_I show Aelita and Jeremy down path, yes?_" Ligaya asked, fluttering over to the doorway and spinning.

Jeremy and Aelita looked to each other, and Aelita shrugged. They stood, and they walked over to the pixie. Jeremy opened the door, and Ligaya flew out quickly. Aelita smiled and curtsied mockingly before following the pixie. Jeremy shut the door behind him.

Ligaya flew down the path a bit, and instead of waiting at a turn like it normally would, it stopped about a fourth of the way down. When the teens caught up with the pixie, they heard the standard sound of a twisting balloon, and Aelita turned. The shack had vanished, along with the part of the path that led to it. The path ended where they stood—or, in Ligaya's case, flew—and then the standard sound continued until the path turned and went further into the forest. Ligaya fluttered its wings and flew down the path, stopping at where it turned again. It spun as it waited for the teens.

"How did everything go back at the village?" Aelita asked, looking to Jeremy as they walked leisurely down the path.

Jeremy huffed. "Fine, I guess."

"You guess or you know?" She teased him.

"I guess," He repeated seriously.

Aelita looked at his serious expression, and Jeremy stuffed his hands in his pockets as she did so. "I saw from the entrance that the fire was put out," Aelita said, and continued, "Was that you?"

Jeremy looked at her. "Yeah." He nodded, then turned his attention to Ligaya, who waited impatiently for them. "Was it you who told the forest to attack?"

"No," She shook her head. "No, the forest attacked on its own. I didn't know what was going on." He nodded again, and she became concerned. "Is everything alright?" She asked, and she placed her hand on his shoulder.

Before he answered, they reached the turning point. "_Little farther!_" Ligaya announced, flying down the path a bit before looking back at them. "_I show Aelita and Jeremy down path, yes?_" It said before flying down the rest of the path to the next turning point.

"Is everything alright, Jeremy?" Aelita repeated herself, and Jeremy nodded, thought for a moment, and then shook his head.

"I don't know." He said, his eyes somewhere else.

* * *

"Good morning!" Shiloh announced, spinning around outside the charred hut. The family next door—or, seeing as how they used curtains like Shiloh's family, next curtain—had allowed them to sleep in their hut for the night, but refused them another. "Have Jeremy and Aelita returned?" She asked, sitting with Suzy and Lukas.

"No, not yet." Suzy shook her head with a smile. "But when they do, you know you have to tell Aelita what you did." Her smile vanished as she looked to Shiloh seriously.

Shiloh blinked. "What?" She asked, looking at Suzy in confusion. "I don't know what you mean, Suzette." Shiloh stated, crossing her arms.

"_Suzy,_" Suzy corrected. "And I _mean_ that you kissed Jeremy. You have to apologize to her—well, you have to apologize to him, too, but you should probably apologize to her first." Suzy thought for a moment before nodding.

Lukas laughed. "You act like he's having an affair." He said, placing his head in his hand. "A kiss is not that big of a deal."

"Have you ever paid attention to Aelita?" Suzy asked, almost rhetorically.

"Haven't you?" Lukas retorted quickly. "It doesn't sound like she's kissed him. This, from what I've gathered from my mom, makes him fair game!"

Suzy rolled her eyes. "She's an innocent little girl on the inside. A kiss would _feel_ like an affair to her." She explained. "And just because she hasn't kissed him doesn't mean he's fair game. It more of means that he's a good guy who's taking it slow, unlike his evil twin." She shuddered when she thought of Jason.

"Um, excuse me!" Shiloh interrupted before a fight broke out. "I'm lost. Why do I have to apologize to Aelita?" She asked innocently.

Suzy drew something in the dirt. There was an 'A,' a 'J,' and an 'S.' "Because Aelita likes Jeremy…" Suzy explained, drawing an arrow from the 'A' to the 'J.' "…and you kissed him…" She continued, drawing a line between the 'J' and the 'S,' and she doodled a pair of lips next to it. "…and when Aelita finds out, she'll be mad at _both_ of you." Suzy completed her diagram with two lines, one connecting 'A' and 'J,' the other connecting the 'A' and the 'S.' She drew wavy lines indicating steam from both lines.

Shiloh examined the diagram for a moment. She paused, and said, "Okay…" Shiloh looked between the two humans before adding, "And she thinks that she can be with Jeremy because…?"

"Lord if I know." Suzy said, crossing her arms and then reached into her pocket. She pulled out a hair tie and pulled her still-frizzy hair into a ponytail. "Are you saying that it won't?"

"Yes." Shiloh nodded.

"Why?" Suzy asked.

"He's an elf."

"So?"

"She's a human."

"And?"

"She's not only human, she's a human princess."

"Get to the point, Shiloh."

Shiloh sighed. "You claim to be a Passage Knight and yet you know nothing about the people your kind was created to serve." She said to the sky, and then looked back to the humans before her. "Long, long ago, magical creatures were constantly at war with each other. If they were not at war, they were at each other's throats. They argued about land. They argued about money. They argued about food and livestock and water supplies. But most of all, they argued about who would rule over the others.

"Each creature wanted their kind to be in charge. But no creature wanted another kind of creature to be in charge. They argued for years, when suddenly, one creature said, 'Let's not have a creature rule.'" Shiloh told the humans the myth of the ancients. "Now, the myth is frazzled here, and each creature has a different version of which creature wanted someone besides a creature to rule. The pixie version says that the pixies said this, but I've heard the gorgon and hidebehind versions, too, and they both say something different. So most people nowadays just say 'creature.'" She explained.

"Anyway, other creatures were confused. They had never heard of something that wasn't creature. 'What do you mean?' The others asked. 'What could rule over creatures but creatures?'" Shiloh continued the tale. "'Humans,' The creature said. 'They are not creatures. Most possess no powers. Let them be our rulers.' The creature said. An old witch stepped forward and said, 'I have a friend who is human. She has been blessed with a husband, and I have blessed them with a power that will pass down from their generation to the next and the one after that and so on. They are good people; they are kind people. Let them be our rulers.' The witch said, and she cast a spell so the other creatures could see the humans she proposed.

"The creatures all agreed. 'Bring them here, wise witch,' the others said, 'Bring your humans to us.' The witch agreed, but then she warned, 'We creatures must not court these humans. All others are fine, but do not pursue these humans!' The others were confused once more. 'Why, wise witch? Why should we not pursue these humans?' they asked.

"'If we pursue these humans for their hand in marriage, and the human agrees, the creature who marries the human will become king or queen. This will give the creatures of the same blood as the king or queen power over the other creatures. This will make the heir that is produced have creature-tainted blood, and the human lineage will be lost.' The witch warned, and then she summoned the humans. They were crowned king and queen. They were told the same thing, and they told their children, and so on." Shiloh finished, and then pointed to the charred curtain that had once served as her front door. "That was depicted on that curtain, if you'll believe. Human heirs must marry humans so that way the balance of power isn't lost."

There was a silence. "Oh," Suzy said. "Did you tell _her_ that?" She snapped.

Shiloh raised her shoulders defensively. "No," She shook her head. "I told her that she would've had to get married, most likely from an arranged marriage, had the vampires not 'killed' her over fourteen thousand years ago."

Lukas looked to Suzy, and she looked back at him. Lukas paused before saying, "Is there some sort of loophole?"

"Loophole?" Shiloh asked.

"Yeah. A loophole." Lukas nodded. "Some error in the law that will allow her to marry Jeremy or whatever without upsetting the balance of power?"

"I don't entirely know. I know that she can only marry a human from the myth I just told you, but I don't know the law." Shiloh thought for a moment. "But I don't think so. If she married a creature, her heir would be half-human half-creature… that's the most important part."

They fell silent. Suzy held her stomach and asked, "What if she already had an heir?"

"Why? Does she?" Shiloh asked.

"I don't think so. But suppose she did." Suzy said.

"I don't know, Suzette." Shiloh sighed. "I don't know the law!"

Suzy raised her eyebrows and rolled her eyes. She stood, muttered, "My back hurts," and placed her hand on the small of her back. "You guys have salad around here?"

* * *

"If something's wrong, you can always talk to _me_ about it!" Aelita smiled at the elf walking next to her, though it seemed he was no longer paying attention. She looked down to the path, and her hair fell and formed a curtain around her face. She pushed it away so she could look at Jeremy again. "Please…?"

As she murmured that, Ligaya flew around their heads. "_Jeremy! Aelita! Almost there!_" The pixie sang. It paused when it saw the awkward look on both their faces. It buzzed around Aelita first, and then Jeremy. It paused as it and Jeremy stared at each other for a moment. Ligaya flashed blue quickly before fluttering down the path.

The teens turned silently, and they saw that the path was much shorter. At the end of it, they saw a tall white structure that was black at the bottom. The top floated above the rest of it, and there was an ambient blue glow to it. "A tower!" Aelita shouted with a smile on her face, and the teens ran forward to it. Ligaya's glow brightened for a second before flying around and into it.

Aelita was comforted by the dark blue walls and data squares within. She fell back and hit the platform she stood on. Ligaya flew around the tower happily, and Jeremy sat down next to Aelita. "_Aelita happy, yes?_" Ligaya landed on the tip of Aelita's nose.

She smiled. "Very!" She said, and she sat up. The sudden motion knocked the pixie off balance, and it fluttered its wings before repositioning itself on her nose. "Do you know where it goes?"

Ligaya thought for a moment. "_Down?_" It said, more of a question than an answer.

Jeremy laughed. "Smart kid!" He complimented the pixie, who fluttered its wings in pride.

Aelita smiled and shook her head. "No, I mean, do you know which tower this connects to?" She clarified.

"_Oh._" The pixie said. "_I no know. Where Aelita want go?_"

"Back to the village, I guess." Aelita shrugged, and Jeremy's face seemed pained. "We left pretty late last night. I'm sure everyone is worried."

Ligaya nodded, and she shot a glance to Jeremy, who seemed even more pained. "Oh, I'm sure everyone is worried, alright…" He muttered bitterly.

"_I go, too, yes?_" Ligaya said, resting on Aelita's shoulder. "_I take Aelita and Jeremy to village, yes?_"

Aelita nodded with a smile, and she grabbed Jeremy's hand. She dragged him to the side of the platform, and he said, "Aelita, I don't think that we should go that way…"

"Of course we should. This is how we go from one tower to another." She reassured him.

"I know that, but that's not what I meant…" Jeremy said, and Aelita smiled. She jumped off the side of the platform, dragging Jeremy with her.


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter Thirteen: The Affairs of Dragons_

Aelita helped Shiloh lift a charred piece of the ceiling out of the hut. The two girls tossed it into the pile, and Shiloh smiled weakly as she looked to Aelita, who smiled wider than the other girl. Shiloh looked away, and she flinched as Ligaya buzzed angrily around her head. "Ligaya!" Aelita said, watching the small pixie buzz around the larger one's head. She trapped Ligaya in her hands, opened them to look at the small pixie, and as it escaped, caught it again. "What's the matter with you?" She asked, and then looked to Shiloh. "I'm sorry. I didn't think it would cause so much trouble."

Shiloh smiled weakly again. "No, no, it's fine." She pushed a stray hair away from her face, and her smile—however weak—slowly vanished. "Aelita?" She asked, and Aelita made a small sound of acknowledgement. "Did Jeremy tell you…?"

"Did Jeremy tell me what?" Aelita said, opening her hands so Ligaya could fly free. It landed on Aelita's shoulder. Its white color had faded and been replaced by red—its hair, eyes and clothes bright red, its skin a grey-pink color.

"About…" Shiloh paused. The pixie could vary between weak and strong hearts, but this was one of her weaker moments. She muttered, "…our kiss."

Aelita looked at her, and Shiloh prepared for a storm, but the human girl said, "What? I couldn't hear you." Shiloh released a breath of relief.

"_Kiss!_" Ligaya shouted, fluttering its dragonfly wings angrily. The sudden outburst startled the girls, and the small pixie continued, "_Shiloh kiss Jeremy!_"

Shiloh's face turned red, but Aelita laughed. "How would you know, Ligaya? I don't recall you meeting Shiloh until this morning." She said, smiling skeptically at the pixie with her hands on her hips.

Ligaya fluttered her wings. "_Same way I know intruder be Jeremy!_" It buzzed around Aelita's head, and then Shiloh's. "_Memories! Memories!_"

Aelita laughed, and it was obvious that she still didn't believe the small pixie. Ligaya buzzed around her head accordingly. Shiloh approached the human girl and placed a hand on her shoulder, and Aelita looked at her. She nodded, and Aelita's eyes looked very hurt. Ligaya noticed Shiloh's arm and bit it, which caused Shiloh to recoil her arm. It didn't hurt, but it had shocked her a little. The smaller pixie nodded and crossed her arms. "Why would you do that?" Aelita asked, her eyes welling with tears.

Shiloh covered her heart with her hands. "Please, listen to me, princess—" Shiloh began as she moved closer to Aelita, who took large steps back.

"Why would I listen to you now?" Aelita demanded. "Why'd you kiss him? You barely know him!"

"If you'll calm down, I'll explain…" Shiloh waited, and Aelita reluctantly silenced herself. "To start with, I didn't know that you liked him…" She waited for the human girl to snap, but she didn't, so the pixie girl continued, "…secondly, you and him—please don't hit me for saying this—can't be."

Aelita took a breath in, and then released it. "Continue." She hissed, and Shiloh stifled a laugh caused by the fact Aelita's expression looked like a larger version of Ligaya's expression.

"Remember the other day, when I told you about what your life would have been like had the vampires hadn't 'killed' you?" Shiloh asked, and Aelita nodded. "And I told you about how you would've had an arranged marriage had they not 'killed' you?" She asked, and Aelita nodded again. "Your marriage would have been to a human. As a princess, it's your duty to us to produce a human heir…" Shiloh explained, her face serious.

Aelita flinched. She knew she was human, and she was mostly sure she was the princess, and if she _was_, she knew she needed to produce an heir, but she didn't know that 'human' was a necessary characteristic. Shiloh continued, "And the balance of power can't be upset. Your husband will become king, Aelita… if he's a creature, his people will have power over the others. It'll defy what we need you to do."

The human girl clenched her fists. "That doesn't change anything!" Aelita shouted. "Don't try to justify your actions with laws that put me and what I believe at fault!" She turned and ran, and she heard Shiloh call her name, but she didn't stop. Her vision became blurry from her tears.

Why was she crying so hard? Aelita wasn't sure.

She crashed into someone, and she wiped away her tears to find the someone was Jeremy. "Are you okay?" He asked, and Ligaya buzzed around his head. It bit his ear, and he flinched, his ears acting accordingly.

"Why would you let Shiloh _do_ that?" Aelita demanded, and the pint-sized pixie landed on her shoulder, and Jeremy knew exactly what she was talking about. "Why would you do that?"

"Aelita, I didn't," He said, and he added, "It was unexpected. She kissed me, not the other way around." Jeremy explained, trying to reason with her. "I'm sorry!"

Aelita shook her head. "You can be as sorry as you want." She said, backing away from him. "You can be sorry from one end of the earth to another. You still let her kiss you…" She clenched her fists again, resisting the urge to pummel him. On second thought, she was pretty sure she couldn't pummel him, anyway. "…and that makes you just as guilty as she is."

She ran, no longer caring where she went. Ligaya held onto her hair, knowing it was too small to keep up with her. Aelita considered returning to Earth, but he knew where to find her there. She considered the forest, but he could find that again if he tried hard enough. The rice fields were too close by and provided little hiding places. The river was disgusting, and Aelita refused to touch its water again until she knew how to clean it. She reached the halfway point in the rice fields, and the adults in them stared at her. She looked up to the mountains, and she muttered the word to release her wings. Ligaya took cover in Aelita's hood, and she flew over the remaining fields to a promontory sticking out of the side of a mountain.

"Ligaya, it's alright now. You can come out now." Aelita said, offering the palm of her hand to the pixie. It turned her hand over to stand on the top of it. Aelita overlooked the Puril Damuhan, and she saw for the first time that it was larger than she realized. North past the tower, the mountains lowered themselves and created two points. After the points, there was grass. The south was where the eastern and western mountains connected, and she supposed that the mountains to the south were the southern mountains. Marumi Village seemed small, like an ant. The Malinaw River seemed to flow from the western mountains to the eastern mountains, the eastern mountains being where Aelita stood. The water in the river looked blue from a distance, which offered her little comfort. Travelers, she assumed, that had the ability to clean the water must look down at it from a distance and think; oh, what a pretty little river, it must be so lively down there!

How wrong those travelers were.

The area around the village, tower and rice fields was massive, and all of it was grass. At night, vampires lurked in the grass, looking for prey, but during the day, Aelita could see white stags either prancing in the grass or eating it, and while she knew white stags on Earth were red deer without its natural pigment, the white stags in the Puril Damuhan were somewhat different.

Aelita looked around the mountain. There were steps carved into the mountain she stood on, and she walked carefully to reach them. Ligaya sat down on her shoulder, and its red coloring faded to yellow. Its skin was pale yellow, its hair, eyes and clothing all bright yellow. It looked around, and then smiled and pointed. "_Sign! I find sign!_" Ligaya announced, its wings fluttering happily. Aelita looked to where the pixie was pointing, and she walked over to it.

"'Beware of Dragon,'" Aelita read, and she looked to Ligaya. "Do you really think that there are dragons on this mountain? I know that magical creatures live here and all, but I just can't believe a dragon lives here."

Ligaya nodded. "_Dragon die before Aelita born._" It said, flying off her shoulder and landing on the post. It spun.

"Maybe it's just a really big lizard." Aelita shrugged, motioning for Ligaya to follow her. She walked up the steps, and since the mountain was steep, Aelita became tired quickly. Ligaya fluttered its wings before landing on her shoulder. When they reached the top, they saw a cave, a tower of steam rising from a hole in the extended opening. "Oh. It looks like someone's boiling water in there. Smart." Aelita complimented, and as she stumbled onto her feet to enter the cave, Ligaya pulled on her hair.

"_Smoke! Smoke!_" Ligaya shouted, flying around Aelita's head to get her attention. "_Dragon! Dragon!_" It said, fear in its voice.

"Don't be silly," Aelita said, walking toward the cave mouth. Ligaya fluttered widely about before flying in after her. The cave was dark, obviously, but it was very wide. Eventually, they found what seemed to be where the steam was coming from, and Aelita asked, "Here's the steam, but where's the pot of water?"

She reached forward in the darkness. She found nothing, at first, but when she did, it felt scaly and wide. Two red eyes opened in the darkness, and Aelita gasped. She saw nothing, but heard a man's deep voice say, "Move,"

Aelita hit the wall, and whatever she found rushed past her. When it reached the sunlight, Aelita could see its blue snake-like body, its four lizard-like paws with five claws on each paw and the tuft of red fur on the end of its snake-like body. The creature turned, and she could see its wide snout, its wise red eyes, its wild red mane, its red eyelashes, its red fur-like ears and the ivory stag horns in front of its ears. "A dragon," Aelita muttered. More specifically, it was a dragon from Chinese mythology, but it was nevertheless a dragon. It opened its mouth to reveal a blood-red tongue and ivory teeth.

The dragon seemed to pant for a bit, but then it flicked its ivory whiskers. It breathed out, and steam rose from its nostrils. It lifted one of its paws and held up three claws. The other two were bent down onto the pad of the paw. "Three," It said, though its mouth did not move with the word. It remained open.

"Three," Aelita repeated, and she asked, "Three what?" The dragon ignored her, and it laughed. Its laugh was not like its deep voice. Its laugh sounded more like the laugh one would expect from a crazy old man than a wise and benevolent dragon. The dragon twisted its body, and while Aelita simply thought it was trying to dance, it soared up into the sky, blending in with the heavens.

"_Dragon!_" Ligaya laughed, flying around Aelita's head, and the pixie repeated, "_Dragon! Dragon! Dragon!_"

Aelita waited until Ligaya rested on her shoulder to nod. "Yes," She said, smiling. "A dragon." She looked around the cave. "How much do you know about dragons?" She asked the pixie.

"_No much,_" It said, sitting down on Aelita's shoulder. "_Dragon no coming back,_" It added, then continued, "_Dragon no return once leave place. Too busy, too busy._" Ligaya waved its hand in a circular motion.

As it said this, Aelita tripped over something. She felt around with her hand to find it, and when she did, she picked it up and walked over to the entrance to hold it up to the sunlight. It was round, shiny, resembled a pearl and was very pretty, but it was much too large to be a pearl. Pearls, she assumed, were small because they grew in small areas, much like she was small because she wasn't allowed outside her bedroom for most of her life. The item she held in her hands was at least the size of her head, and much heavier. "Do you know what this is?" Aelita asked, lowering the item to a level where she could hold it.

Ligaya looked at it. It spun on top of it, ecstatic. "_Egg! Egg! This be dragon egg!_" It sang, smiling. Aelita laughed at it, and she smiled. Her thoughts floated elsewhere, and her eyes grew cloudy. "_I give Aelita penny for Aelita thoughts, yes?_" The pixie said, flying up to eye-level with Aelita, and then fluttering its wings to remain airborne.

"Ligaya, that memory you talked about…" Aelita said, not looking to the pixie. "…who kissed whom?" She asked, her eyes saying that she wanted to know the answer but dreaded learning it at the same time.

Ligaya had not been expecting that question. Often, the pixie could anticipate would question Aelita would ask and when she would ask it, but the question was completely unexpected. It didn't give the pixie much of a chance to think of a good lie, and even if it had, it wouldn't be able to lie to Aelita, anyway. It smiled and flew around Aelita's head. "_Shiloh kiss Jeremy! Shiloh kiss Jeremy!_" It said. Aelita smiled faintly. Ligaya saw as much and asked, "_Why Aelita ask?_"

Aelita looked to the pixie that was airborne in front of her. "I was just thinking…" She said, her eyes wandering, "…that if what Jeremy said was true, then I probably shouldn't have spoke to him the way I did. He didn't deserve it."

The pixie landed on the dragon's egg and spun. "_Aelita feel guilty?_" It asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. I feel really guilty." She looked up to the sky and faintly saw the dragon soaring. "Shiloh didn't deserve to be treated that way, either. She's been really kind to us these past few days." Aelita added, her eyes smiling. Had she not known better, she could've sworn she heard the dragon say 'one.'

* * *

Jeremy sulked in the charred hut. Every so often, he would smack his head against the wall of the hut, and black ash would fall and decorate the lenses of his glasses. The insides of his ears were parallel to the ash-coated dirt floor. He crossed his arms over his raised knees and hid his chin behind them. Shiloh entered the hut, took one look at him and said, "Jeremy, I'm sorry… are you still upset?"

He looked at the pixie, and it took all the control he had not to kill her. Jeremy sat up and forced a smile. His eyebrow twitched, and he said sarcastically, "No, I'm not upset. Look at my smile—I'm so damn happy right now that if I was any damn happier I would have to create something damn awful just so I wouldn't explode from all the fucking happy!"

Shiloh took him seriously. "That's good."

Jeremy continued. "This fucking hut, this fucking village, this fucking valley—this fucking hellhole you damn bastards call Lyoko is all just part of my personal fucking happy world! Would you like a fucking tee shirt? How about a fucking coffee mug? All you have to do is visit the fucking gift shop called, '_I visited Fucking Limbo and all I got was Shit!_'!" The elf boy was shouting, and it attracted Lukas and Suzy to the doorway where Shiloh stood, stunned. Jeremy stood when he saw Lukas and Suzy, and he added, "I fucking welcome you to my fucking happy world! Now get your fucking shit and _leave!_" He stormed past the three teens, a personal raincloud almost hovering over him.

"Wow," Suzy said, her eyes wide as she watched him. "I had no idea Jeremy had such a colorful vocabulary." She rubbed the back of her neck. She looked to Shiloh and asked, "Did you apologize?"

Shiloh nodded. "He started his rant after I apologized."

Lukas laughed. "Wow. _Bitchy!_"

Suzy smacked his arm and then returned her attention to Shiloh. "What about Aelita? Did you apologize to her?"

"I wanted to, but she ran off before I could." Shiloh admitted. "I searched the village and the rice fields, but I couldn't find her."

"Let me guess—you tried to explain yourself first." Suzy asked. Shiloh nodded. "Well, there's your problem right there. Next time you're going to explain something you know your audience is going to find controversial, apologize first." Suzy announced. She smiled for a moment, then realized something, and excused herself. "Now, pardon me while I go barf."

Lukas and Shiloh laughed, thinking it was a joke, but Suzy ran off.

Aelita stumbled into the village with the dragon's egg in her hands. She saw Shiloh and Lukas laughing, and for a moment, she was hurt. She shrugged it off and approached them. "What are you two laughing at?" She asked, shifting her position with the dragon's egg so she would remain comfortable holding it.

"Aelita!" Lukas announced with a smile. "You're back! Where did you go?"

"Up to the eastern mountains." She said, motioning in the direction she came from. "I saw a dragon there, and Ligaya said that it wouldn't return. That's when I tripped over what we think is its egg." Aelita said, and she gently placed it on the dirt. "I figured that if the dragon wasn't coming back, I might as well take its egg. Do you know how heavy this thing is?"

Shiloh approached her, and she said, "Aelita, I'm really, _really_ sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I _really_ didn't." She smiled weakly.

Aelita smiled back and hugged the larger pixie. "I'm sorry, too. I snapped at you, even after you and your family risked and lost everything for us. It wasn't right."

"So, am I forgiven?" Shiloh asked, hopefully.

"Almost." Aelita said with a smile that left the teenage pixie baffled. "Do you know where Jeremy went?" She asked, muttering something to Ligaya, who sat on her shoulder, and the tiny pixie flew over and rested on the dragon's egg. She turned and looked around, and when she spotted him, she called out to him. "Jeremy! Can you come here?"

Jeremy turned, and when he saw Aelita waving to him, he stood and ran to her. "Aelita!" He called out, and when he reached her, she embraced his neck. The elf boy stood there blinking for a second before he returned the embrace. "Aelita, I am so sorry! Can you forgive me?" Jeremy asked, and Aelita loosened her embrace enough so she could look at him.

"I'm sorry, too. You didn't deserve what you got." She apologized, and when Jeremy smiled, she kissed him. When their kiss ended, she released her embrace on the elf boy, looked at Shiloh, pointed at her and said, "_Now_ you're forgiven." Aelita walked over to the dragon's egg and asked, "Now, where's Suzy? I want to show her the dragon's egg."

The stunned Lukas and Shiloh pointed in the direction Suzy had run off in. Aelita smiled and walked in that direction. The two stunned teens looked to the equally-if-not-more-so stunned Jeremy, who paused for a moment before laughing and saying, "I don't know if I'll ever understand her completely."

* * *

Suzy sat behind the charred hut, and she looked to Aelita when she greeted the redhead. "When did you put your hair up? Despite being frizzy, I like it." Aelita complimented.

"After you and Jeremy left for the forest. Most likely this morning." Suzy said. "I can't remember anymore…" She shook her head as Aelita sat down next to her. "What's _that?_" She asked, her voice blunt.

"A dragon's egg." Aelita smiled. Both she and Ligaya fluttered their wings. "I wanted to show you it."

Suzy smiled and looked at it, and then looked up to Aelita. "Can I tell you something, Aelita? I haven't told anyone else. I don't know what they would think."

"Anything, Suzy." The pink haired girl nodded.

Suzy opened her mouth to say something, and then pointed to the pixie on Aelita's shoulder. "Could you tell that to fly away? It unnerves me." She asked.

"Go on, Ligaya." Aelita shooed the pixie, who in response stuck its tongue out at Suzy. It flew away afterwards. "Now, what did you want to tell me?"

Suzy paused. "Remember when we first learned Jeremy and Jason were different people, and how I told you that Jason was about to do the same thing to you that he did to me?" She said.

"Uh-huh." Aelita nodded.

"Well, I'm not totally sure about it, but…" Suzy paused again. "…I think I'm pregnant."

It was Aelita's turn to pause. "Really?" She asked, and Suzy nodded. To the redhead's surprise, Aelita smiled. "Well, that's great! You're going to be a mommy!" She smiled widely.

"No, Aelita, it's not great." Suzy corrected. "In a way, I guess you're right, but in another, you're totally wrong. It isn't great. It's not even cool."

"Why do you think that? It's not something that happens every day!" Aelita shrugged. "Actually, I guess it does happen every day, but not to people I _know_…"

"It isn't—"

"Thousands of babies are born every day, I mean."

"Great because—"

"Big babies, small babies, healthy babies, sick babies…"

"I think—"

"They're always so cute. And their moms always have that kind of glow about them, too."

"I'm _gay!_" Suzy finally got her message out. She and Aelita stared at each other for a moment before she sighed. "Whew! I'm glad I got _that_ off my chest. It feels good to know it's out there." She wiped an imaginary sweat droplet from her brow before looking back to the pink haired girl, who seemed surprised. "Aelita? Are you alright with that?" Suzy asked her.

"Oh." Aelita said, pausing for a moment before shrugging. "That's okay." She smiled at her friend.

"So… you _are_ alright with me being gay?" Suzy asked for clarification.

"Sure." Aelita nodded. "I mean—hey! I like you anyway!" Suzy placed a hand on her heart and sighed.

"You're so accepting." She complimented. "And as long as we're here, I have one last thing to say."

"As long as we're here, you can say whatever you want."

"When you, Jeremy and Lukas head back to Earth…" Suzy said, "…I'm staying here."

"Why?" Aelita asked, hurt.

"Well, first of all, I'm gay and Lukas _obviously_ has a crush on me, and being around him makes me uncomfortable with myself." Suzy began. "Second of all, Jeremy told me that I was a Passage Knight, which originated here, and I went thirteen years of my life—which is all of them, mind you—not knowing about this place."

"I was born here and didn't find out about it until recently." Aelita said.

"Hush. I'm still talking." Suzy shushed her. "If I'm supposed to guard the tower or whatever, I should probably start soon. Besides…" Suzy placed a hand on her stomach. "…I don't want my kid to grow up on Earth thinking that they're a normal human when they should be here, learning how to protect a Passage Tower. That's what happened to me. If I'm supposed to be a mom now, I should want better for my kid."

Aelita contemplated that. She glanced to the dragon's egg in her lap, and she offered it to Suzy. "I don't know when it'll hatch, but you can give it to your son and/or daughter. If it doesn't hatch for them, they can pass it on to their kids and whatnot."

"Aelita…" Suzy smiled, and she hugged the pink haired girl. She took it from her and smiled again. "That's so sweet of you. Thank you!"

"Early baby shower gift." Aelita winked. "Tell them that it's from their not-so-fairy Godmother Aelita."

Suzy half-hugged the girl next to her. "Will do!" She laughed.

* * *

A/N: There are two morals to this chapter. This first is forgiveness: always forgive. Even if you think it's impossible, try. If you still have trouble with the forgiveness, find a creative way to make it easier for you. The second moral is acceptance: always accept. For example, if your friend tells you that they're gay, think before you respond. If you liked them before they were gay, why should being gay change anything? If you didn't like them before they were gay… well, I don't know what to tell you.


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter Fourteen: The War Begins_

Major Richard Winston looked over his troops that hid in the grass. He had received word from the Vampire King that Laurelei had entered Lyoko and was on her way to the Puril Damuhan. The troops waited anxiously in the grass, their whispers barely audible, even though every vampire spoke. Major Winston had waited for that moment his entire life. He had led the vampires to war thousands of years ago when the Human King Franz and the Human Queen Anthea fell. His was a decorated war hero, and stories of him were told in taverns across Lyoko. He was cast as a fearless fighter, a merciless tyrant, and a grand actor. New recruits to the Vampire Army longed to be like him, and vampires turned when teenagers hung posters of him on their walls in the capital city of Carthage.

Only vampires were allowed into Carthage. If a non-vampire stepped even thirty meters away from Carthage, they were enslaved. Often the enslaved were sentenced to the mines, unless they were human. Humans were either given to the Xanadu for experimentation or turned into vampires and forced into the Vampire Army. If they disliked the Vampire Army, they would be brought before Major Winston, and Major Winston would pretend to care about them and their wants and needs. He would then allow them to leave his presence, and he would order them to the front line of the last troop before sunrise without a weapon or armor.

Major Winston was a cruel man. It was how he had gotten as far as he had. He refused to give up when he was so close to achieving what he wanted. Laurelei landed next to him on the promontory that he stood on. At first, Major Winston thought she wore a metallic white tube top, a tight metallic white skirt and a belt, but upon closer inspection, he realized it was simply a very tight dress. Her poison was spread throughout her skin and not pulled to her lips. The belt was black, but it seemed to only be decoration, for her guns rested in their holsters on her hips. Her white metallic fingerless gloves reached just below her shoulders, and her white metallic boots clung close to her legs and reached just below the bottom straps of her gun holsters.

Major Winston had not changed his uniform, but he had polished his hat and boots. He thought that he looked rather spiffy.

"Tonight's the night humans will cower in fear." Laurelei said, standing up straight and crossing her arms. "We may not wipe them out completely tonight, but our existence will be revealed and they will cower, believe me you."

Major Winston laughed. "How do you know? From what your father tells me, vampires are quite popular on Earth currently." He asked, his white and aged eyebrow raising. Major Winston knew very little of Earth. What he remembered of it was not exactly current. He had been turned when he an old man, a veteran for World War One and when he was refused by the British government to fight for them in World War Two, he confronted a vampire. The vampire had been loyal to the Human King and Queen, but Major Winston had convinced him otherwise.

The vampire that turned him was the Vampire King. What many vampires in the Vampire Army did not realize, and none of the vampires in the capital city of Carthage realized, was that the Vampire King was not who he said he was. Any one of the vampires in Carthage or the Vampire Army would be surprised if they found out how much power the Vampire King held; which was none. He was merely a figurehead, though he did know exactly what was going on. When Major Winston told his troops that he would confirm their actions with the Vampire King, he was simply going to inform the Vampire King what he planned to do. That was the Vampire King's job; simply know, never interfere.

It was probably why life for other creatures was so terrible. He knew, but what would he do? What could he do? Nothing, that's what. And the Vampire King was quite fond of doing nothing.

He was quite good at it, too.

"Oh, those pathetic humans wouldn't know a _real_ vampire if it bit them on the neck!" Laurelei huffed. She laughed a laugh that was a mix of bitterness and evil. "Of course, they _are_ about to be bit on the neck by real vampires. But if any reports go on television about vampire attacks, many humans will choose not to believe them."

Major Winston laughed his agreement. It was an honest laugh, but also evil. He hated humans. Even when he was human, he hated them. He hated how small minded they were, and how blissfully unaware they were that creatures lurked in the shadows that stalked their movements. He hated how weak their spirits were, and he hated how a simple truth could break the spirit of one so completely. But he loved how those factors came together in the form of a being with blood so delectable and rare on Lyoko. He loved the terrified look on their faces when he snuck upon them and feasted on their blood. He loved how feeble their survival attempts would be. "I believe you're right, child. Their days are numbered."

Laurelei nodded. "Our first attack is on the United States. The most credible newspapers in the country will be raving about vampire attacks while tabloids like '_the National Enquirer_' will be calling it a hoax. Days of great beauty lie ahead." Laurelei said, her eyes glinting evilly across the vampires whispering in the grass.

"Ah, Americans." Major Winston shook his head with a smile. "Any country that waited until the year before a war ends to join in the fight deserves to be attacked first." He said, twitching his moustache*, which covered his upper lip and gave off a similar feeling that your grandfather would've given off when he was telling you a story of his war days.

If your grandfather was a human-hating bloodsucker about to invade the Earth, that is.

Laurelei looked to Major Winston with a smirk. "But they did help defeat the Central Powers, if you recall, Major." She said, closing her eyes and raising her eyebrows.

He huffed. "I remember." He admitted reluctantly.

"But that's the past!" Laurelei shrugged. "Today we look forward to the future. A future where we don't force ourselves to blend in; a future where we don't lurk in shadows; a future where our oppressors are dead and we rule ourselves."

"I agree. For too long we have followed humans blindly. Those who survive will forget their humanity and join us or join the fate of the humans who walked, fought and failed before them." Major Winston nodded. "When do we attack Earth?"

"Anytime now. My father has activated the Passage Tower." Laurelei reported. "It's our lucky day as well. Ever since it appeared, humans have flocked to it. Tonight, the number is at its highest since it appeared." Laurelei laughed.

"Is it? I would've assumed it would be at its lowest." Major Winston commented.

"An elf was foolish enough to reveal himself to the humans at the tower before racing inside it. Most humans are trying to protect the elf, but others are simply trying to destroy the tower." Laurelei shrugged once more. "Do as much damage as you can tonight and fall back before sunrise. We will join you tomorrow night." She said, spreading her wings before taking off.

Major Winston saluted Laurelei before turning his attention to his troops. He paused for a moment, waiting for the words to come to him. "Vampires!" He announced, grabbing the attention of the vampires around him. A hush fell over them, and Major Winston continued, "We have waited thousands of years for this moment! It has finally arrived! Tonight, we will attack Earth! Humanity will crumble in our hands! They will finally know the truth of magical creatures!

"Since the dawn of the scientific era, humans have denied our existence! Their denial has degraded us! Our earthly companions hide their existence to prevent uproars on Earth! Those who live lives that are _not_ hidden are punished by humans! They fear us because we are different! We fear them because they are unpredictable!

"It is time to stop the fear! We will send them into a paranoid state! We will find our 'king' Franz and destroy him! He used to control us and leave us weak! He will do so no longer! Humanity will _stop_ degrading us! Humanity will _stop_ controlling us! We _will_ be victorious!" Major Winston pumped up his troops. They cheered for him, and he smirked. "We start our rebellion tonight! Do not leave a human standing! They will either stay down or stand once more as a vampire! The snow will be dripping with their blood!"

The crowd was ecstatic. Major Winston was soaking up the glory like he said the snow would to human blood. "March forward, my brothers! Do not fear death! Do not fear the bullet of man! Use the power the moon graces us with! Tomorrow our earthly brethren will join us!" He continued his pep talk as he air punched upward. "_Creatures will be victorious!_"

The crowd followed his lead and air punched upwards. They cheered, and shouts like 'Long live the Vampire King' and 'Creatures; always superior' could be heard over the other cheers and shouts. Major Winston was proud of himself. He stepped down from the promontory and walked past his troops. The vampires stood, and when he had passed all of them, he turned. Major Winston motioned for his troops to line up, which they did, and they marched in the direction of the Passage Tower.

* * *

"Jeremy, do you hear that? It sounds like giant footsteps." Aelita asked the elf who sat half asleep next to her. She nudged him, and he rubbed one eye before looking at her. "What do you think that is?" She asked, standing and walking over to the doorway. They waited for a moment, listening to the noise before they looked to each other.

Jeremy stood and walked next to her, and the teens remained silent. He stifled a laugh that rose because of Ligaya sleeping in Aelita's hood. "I don't know. It almost sounds like thunder, or maybe marching…" He said finally, and they exchanged glances again. Aelita asked him with her eyes if they were going out to investigate, and he nodded.

The teens left the charred hut, and it didn't take long to find what was causing the noise. A countless number of vampires marched from the western mountains, led by Major Winston. Jeremy glanced from the army to the Passage Tower, and he whispered to Aelita, "They're going for the Passage Tower. Go wake up Suzy and Lukas, then get out of here while you still can."

Aelita nodded, but she said, "Suzy said she wanted to stay here." She paused for a moment before she asked, "You aren't thinking of taking them on, are you? There are thousands of them!"

"More than that, I'd say…" Jeremy murmured, and then he shook his head. "No, like you said, there are too many of them. I _will_ try to distract them so you can get back to Earth and warn the people there about the incoming attack, though…"

"What if you get caught? They don't look like the kind of people who can take jokes." Aelita folded her arms across her chest as a protest to his proposed actions.

"Well, that's a chance I'm willing to take…" He shrugged.

"I'm not willing to take that chance, however." She protested.

"Will you stop arguing and just do what I asked?"

"Not if you're going to attempt something that might end your life, no."

"Well, what do you propose we do? Let them march right up to Earth?"

"Of course not!"

"So, we're going with my plan, then?"

Aelita paused. She turned and ran back into the hut. Jeremy watched her do so, and when she was out of sight, he turned his attention back to the vampires. He hid in the grass and focused on the water in the Malinaw River. He moved his hand slightly, and some of the water from the river flooded and soaked the feet of the vampires in front, including Major Winston. Jeremy smirked and froze it, which caused confusion among the vampires when they realized they couldn't move.

The vampires wasted no time lighting torches and melting the ice to set their feet free. Jeremy considered freezing the water again, but that was too obvious that someone was controlling the water if he did. When all of the vampires had been freed, Jeremy pulled the water back into the river.

Major Winston saw that and scanned the area. Jeremy remained as still as he could until Major Winston ordered his troops to move forward. Jeremy pulled the water from the river again and surrounded the vampires with it. It rotated counter-clockwise, but because it circled all the vampires, it was small and would not delay the vampires. Jeremy huffed, but he pulled more water from the air and with that, he created a wall of ice. He smiled.

Jeremy stood suddenly, taking advantage of the diminished sight of the vampires to move. He watched as Lukas and Aelita ran back out of the hut. "Okay, get going." Jeremy whispered to the humans, and he motioned to the tower. "Get as many people away from the tower on the other side as you can. I'll hold these guys off as long as I can."

Lukas nodded, and he ran off in the direction of the tower. Jeremy hid in the grass again, in a different spot than before, and he heard someone move towards him. He looked in the direction of the noise, and he saw Aelita move closer to him. "Aelita! Get out of here!" He whispered, watching the ice wall with an intense expression.

Aelita shook her head. "Not if you're still here, Jeremy! What if they find you? There's no way you'd make it out!" She whispered back. Jeremy opened his mouth to say something, but Aelita fluttered her wings, and he shut it.

They watched the ice wall, waiting for the vampires to break free. The ice began to glow red in some areas where the vampires used their torches to melt the ice, but one hand broke through the ice completely. The ice weakened considerably from there, and the vampires pushed their way through. Jeremy melted the ice, and it flowed back to the river. Major Winston watched it again, and he shouted, "This is obviously not natural! Find the creature responsible for this and kill it!"

The vampires saluted Major Winston before doing as he ordered. Aelita spread her wings, ready to take off, but Jeremy placed a hand gently on her shoulder as if to tell her not to overreact. She watched as he used water from the air to lead the vampires further from where they hid. Major Winston skimmed the grass, and he spotted Aelita's wings sticking slightly out of the grass. It was barely noticeable, and he smirked. Major Winston pushed past the other searching vampires, walking towards the teenagers hidden in the grass, and Jeremy froze his feet. Aelita wrapped her arms around Jeremy and took off for the skies, which caught the elf boy by surprise for a second, but he relaxed soon after. Major Winston caught Aelita's ankle, and she tried to pull it away. Jeremy used water from the air to slash at the vampire's shoulder, and it surprised him long enough for him to release Aelita's ankle.

She wasted no time flying for the tower. Aelita placed Jeremy in front of her and he pulled the water from the river up and froze it. "Okay, go!" He ordered, nudging Aelita so she would enter the tower. When she did so, he followed her.

* * *

The teens left the tower to find Lukas arguing with a woman who looked like she stepped out of a 1970's time warp. Jeremy looked around and saw all of the people still standing around. "Why are there so many people here?" He asked the human boy, walking up to Lukas and tapping on his shoulder. "The vampires will be here any second!"

"That's what I've been trying to tell them!" Lukas said, motioning to the woman. "But she won't believe me, and no one else here will believe me, either!"

Jeremy rolled his eyes, and he shouted to get the attention of the humans around him. "Listen to me!" He said, attracting the attention of the people. "There are vampires on their way! If you don't get away from here soon, you'll die! You need to leave!"

Several humans looked to each other before leaving, and some threw up their hands and walked away. But the workers and most of the protestors remained, and three teenage girls pushed past the protestors, and they seemed ecstatic. Their coats were unzipped, revealing black tee-shirts with white text that read 'Team Edward.' "Vampires?" One girl asked, her curly dirty-blond hair pulled back in a high ponytail and her braces black and red. "On their way here?" She continued. The teenage girl who spoke to Jeremy stood in the middle, and to her left there was a girl with short black hair and false vampire teeth, and to her right stood a girl with long brown hair.

Jeremy nodded with a confused look on his face, and the three teenagers giggled like crazy. "Excuse me, but what part of 'vampires' is appealing to you? The bloodsucking, the murderous look in their eyes or the way they look when the sun rises?" He asked them sarcastically, and they just shook their heads.

Aelita tapped his shoulder. "Jeremy, what's 'Team Edward?'" Aelita asked, pointing to the teenage girls' tee-shirts. He shook his head, but he didn't respond. He looked to the faces, most lined with disbelief, others with excitement. Jeremy pitied them, and he wished that he could do more than he was.

Lukas motioned for the other teens to leave. "We should get going. The people who remain stayed willingly, and we shouldn't hold ourselves responsible for the stupidity of others." Jeremy and Aelita nodded, and they pushed past the wall of humans that remained.

When they broke through on the other side, they were greeted by a voice shouting, "_Jeremy Belpois! _You got some_ 'splaining _to do!" Jeremy looked up, and he saw his sister standing on the hood of Gus' van. He smiled as Lyna hopped off the hood of the van and ran towards him. She got very close to his face and shouted, "Wait 'till _Mom_ finds out that you single-handedly revealed the existence of magical creatures to a majority of the human population!"

"Hey, I did not single-handedly reveal anything to a majority of the human population!" Jeremy defended himself. "Some idiot pulled off my headband! It was not my fault!"

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" Lyna shrugged. "We should get home."

Jeremy nodded, and as they moved for the van, humans ran past them. Lyna told Lukas and Aelita to get in the van before she and Jeremy looked back to the tower. As they did so, more humans ran past, but some humans still remained. Major Winston moved forward, vampires filing out of the tower and lining up behind him. The crowd around the tower had thinned considerably, leaving only the workers, a handful of the protestors including the woman who looked like she was from 1970, Naomi Raborg, her cameraperson and the three teenage girls. Two of the teenage girls backed away from the vampires but didn't run, but the one with brown hair moved closer.

The brown-haired teenage girl skimmed the faces of the vampires and moved towards the lieutenant who burned Shiloh's family hut. She smiled goofily, and she held her arms up to him. "You look just like—" She began, and the lieutenant removed his gloves and dug his corpse-like fingernails into his gut. She stopped talking, and her arms fell to grasp his wrist. The vampire lieutenant dug his fangs into her neck, and her friends almost seemed happy for her until the lieutenant pulled his fangs and fingernails from her neck and gut. The brown-haired girl fell, but she hadn't yet died. "I want to be your…" She fell back, her blood staining the dirty snow.

"_Ver!_" The black-haired teenage girl shouted, and the brown-haired girl's two friends ran towards her. Jeremy looked to Lyna, and they both nodded, using the trees as cover to move closer. The 1970's-styled woman ran to the brown-haired girl's side as well, and Naomi Raborg's cameraperson zoomed in on the dying teen. "Ver…? Can you hear me?" The black-haired teen asked her friend.

The brown-haired girl looked to the black-haired girl, her eyes excited. "…I'm going to be a vampire…" The brown-haired girl said hopefully, and she added, "…like Edward and Bella…" The brown-haired girl, however, was not turning into a vampire. She was dying, and while turning into a vampire did kill a human slowly, the brown-haired girl was dying too fast. Whatever turned humans into vampires would not move quickly enough inside her to turn her into a vampire before she died. Her brown hair was stained slightly with the blood, but it didn't seep through her wounds quickly enough to cause a large puddle.

The brown-haired girl's life slipped away.

"Ver? Ver, can you hear me? Ver?" The black-haired girl asked, shaking her friend softly. "_Verity!_" She shouted, crying. The woman took the brown-haired girl from her, and her friends cried. Naomi Raborg and her cameraperson looked to each other before the cameraperson watched the woman carry the corpse away. The vampires took stances like they were ready to lunge, and the two remaining teenage girls screamed and ran, but they tripped over each other and were too afraid to stand again.

The vampires motioned like they were going to attack the remaining girls, but Major Winston stopped them. He ordered the vampire troops to fan out and attack any and every human they saw. He walked towards the terrified teenagers, and he offered his hand to them. The black-haired girl denied it, but the dirt blond sat stunned. The black haired girl pulled on her friend, reminding her friend what the vampires did to Verity, but the dirty blond remained still, lost in Major Winston's hypnotic stare.

"Come on, Lana…" The black-haired girl begged, but her friend didn't move.

"Go on, Kai," The dirty blond—Lana, the elves supposed—said as she took Major Winston's hand. "I'll meet up with you soon…" She and Major Winston conversed quietly, and the black-haired girl—Kai—threw up her hands and ran, but she didn't go far. When Major Winston removed his glove to start his attack, Lyna rounded the tree and shot a long stream of fire at him. Jeremy ran for the girl and pulled her way from the vampire. "What are you doing? You're hurting him!"

"He was about to kill you!" Jeremy pointed out, bringing the two friends together. "Get out of here. Avoid vampires. I'm serious." He added, turning to help his sister when one of the girls stopped him.

"Thank you… uh, who are you, anyway?" Kai asked him.

"Jeremy. Let go of me." The elf boy responded, pulling himself away.

"I'm Kai, and this is Alana." Kai introduced, following him with Lana—Lana being a nickname, apparently—close behind.

"I really don't care right now." Jeremy said honestly, turning his attention to the girls before saying, "Now go home before you become vampire bait." The girls smiled before running. He looked up to the sky for a moment and wondered why, just when he was sure his life couldn't possibly get any worse, God always found a way to make him suffer. "Seriously, God? I'm in enough trouble with Aelita as it is. You just _had_ to introduce me to my fan club, didn't you?" He asked the sky.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your monologue with the clouds, Einstein, but I need some help over here!" Lyna shouted, her voice strained. Jeremy focused on the snow before wrapping it around Major Winston and freezing it. Lyna relaxed, and the fire stopped. Naomi Raborg rushed forward and thrust a microphone in Major Winston's face.

She paused, looking for the words. "Excuse me, sir, but is it true that your army is made up entirely of vampires? Actual vampires—I'm talking blood-sucking sparkles-in-the-sunlight vampires here." Naomi Raborg asked finally, and the elves smacked their foreheads. They ran to Gus' vehicle and watched as Major Winston broke free and attacked the interviewer. As Gus pulled out with a guilty look on his face, they saw the cameraperson drop the camera in the snow and run, along with the workers.

After what felt like an hour on the road, Aelita spoke up in the otherwise silent van. "Those girls… why did they seem like they wanted to be vampires?"

"It's a craze, Aelita," Gus responded. "There are a lot of girls—some boys, too—who would kill for a chance to be a vampire because of this book that's now a movie and has lots of merchandise out."

"The book doesn't cast vampires as murderous bloodsuckers like they actually are. They're cast as beautiful bloodsuckers that sparkle in the sun instead of burn." Lyna added, her legs crossed. "Those girls are fans of that, and they like the vampires in the book more than they like the werewolves, which was why they were so happy to learn about the vampires being here."

Aelita nodded, her expression bitter. "Alright, but now that the vampires are here, how do we get them back to Lyoko and away from humans?"

"I don't know. We can't wait for them to kill off all the humans, obviously." Lyna shrugged. "But we can't fight them off ourselves. We're a small group of teenagers—we won't stand a chance against an army."

"Now, that doesn't sound like the go-do can-do attitude of my younger sister," Jeremy smiled, but it was only half-hearted. "We may not have gone up against an army before, but we sure have beaten the odds more often than not." He looked to the cat boy sitting in front of him. "No offense, Odd."

"None taken," Odd shrugged.

Lyna turned to face her brother. "I know that. But they've got fangs and claws and they outnumber us, like, _ten thousand_ to one. The most we ever won against was, like, _ten_ to one. No, more like _five_ to one! Not ten thousand!"

Jeremy nodded, and he said, "It'll probably be more than that when the Xanadu shows up to help them out. I don't know exactly when, but then it'll be dangerous for humans to even go outside because they could be attacked by creatures other than vampires."

Yumi crossed her legs, her left over her right. "Yeah. Even if the vampires are destroyed, we still have the massive Xanadu army to worry about. Some of those creatures have no weak spots!"

"No weak spot? Everything has a weak spot." Ulrich laughed bitterly. "It's about finding that weak spot that makes things difficult."

"Even if we could find its weak spot, we would be outnumbered still," Yumi said. "For destroying vampires, we just need to get them into sunlight, but for creatures, it isn't that simple!"

"Getting vampires into sunlight is simple?" Lukas asked skeptically.

Yumi ignored him, and she and Ulrich continued to argue. Aelita tapped his shoulder and said, "Yumi's mother is Amaterasu, the Japanese goddess of the sun. She can ask her to shine sunlight on the vampires, which will ultimately be simple." Lukas nodded, and he remained silent.

Except for Yumi and Ulrich, the van was silent. Aelita looked up to the moon, and it was reflected in her eyes. She wondered what would happen next, what with a vampire army killing humans left and right. Creatures had been revealed as real. Vampires were a national threat. Humanity was in danger.

It occurred to her that she should've stopped it. She _could've_ stopped it, which made her wonder if she actually could've stopped it. Her parents had fled over fourteen thousand years ago because the vampires were attacking. They had been unable to control the situation. Her powers were rendered unusable on Earth, except her wings and her healing ability. Her time on Lyoko had only taught her how to control creatures, and she learned nothing more.

Aelita couldn't help but feel as if what was coming, whatever it was, could've been avoided had she actually died fourteen thousand years ago.

* * *

A/N: Vampire Army=Population Control. Yep, lots of Twilight references in this chapter, but if you go up to an average person on the street nowadays and ask them what comes to mind when you say 'vampire,' most will say 'Twilight.' It's revealed that Naomi Raborg thinks that Twilight vampires are real vampires, which they aren't.

No offense to Twilight fans or anything. I just don't think that they're vampires. I think they closer resemble bloodthirsty overgrown pixies.

No offense to Shiloh or anything. Come on, since the invention of vampires, they're weaknesses included burning in sunlight. _Burning. _Not sparkling. _Burning._

This could've gone without the Twilight references, yes. But I saw Team Edward fans in my 'vision' for this chapter. One of them was supposed to die, which was originally the dirty blond one (Alana/Lana), and the only thing that was changed about them was that the surviving two were going to tear off their Team Edward shirts and run.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter Fifteen: In Sickness and in Health_

"My lady? Please wake up now." Aelita heard Puck say, and she opened her eyes. There was darkness all around her, and she looked to the small elf with a smile. "It's been a while."

She nodded. "So it has," Aelita stood, and as she did so, the darkness was replaced with a new scene. It was a city, cars driving past them occasionally and people crammed onto the streets. Aelita looked to their faces, and while most seemed completely human, some had hints of creature lining their faces. To her right, there stood houses crammed together so tightly there seemed to be no way to distinguish where one ended and another began from the outside. "Where are we?" She asked the elf, who walked forward. She ran after him to keep up, and she worried about the humans seeing him for a moment, but they seemed disinterested in the pair and completely oblivious. "Can these people even see us?"

Puck laughed. "No, these people can't see us."

Aelita nodded again. "Where are we? Is this another one of my memories?" She asked, knowing that Puck usually took her to places that she faintly remembered. But as she looked around, nothing seemed familiar.

Puck shook his head. "No, this is not your memory, but it is, still, a memory." He paused and looked to the human girl. "This is a suburb in Paris, September 9th, 1995."

"September 9th, 1995," Aelita repeated, and she shook her head and looked at him. "I haven't even been born yet, have I?"

"Correct. But your elfin friend Jeremy is a little more than a month away from being born." Puck reported. He thought for a moment. "And your golem friend Ulrich died a little over sixty-four years ago."

"Oh, wow." Aelita commented.

"Well, he died July 1931." Puck said. He walked down the street more at stopped in front of stairs leading up to a slab of cement and a door. The house had a window on one side, and Aelita supposed it had two floors because above the front door there were two more windows. "This house belongs to your friend Jeremy's parents before Jeremy's father married Lyna's mother." The small elf reported. He looked to Aelita and asked, "Shall we go in?"

She hesitated. "Shouldn't we at least knock first?"

"We're ghosts of the future here. We can't touch, let alone knock." Puck said, walking to the door and through it. Aelita hesitated before following him.

Inside was nicely decorated in warm but neutral colors. Most technology was dated 1995 or pre-1995. There was a spiral staircase leading to the upstairs, and from somewhere in the house, Aelita heard humming. She looked around for Puck, who motioned for her to follow him to the doorway before the kitchen. When she looked into it, she saw the source of the humming—a young elfin woman with blond hair and blue eyes, both features the same as Jeremy's. She looked pregnant, and very pregnant at that. She hummed a strange song that Aelita thought that she'd never heard before, but then she remembered it.

"Why is she humming '_Entrance of the Gladiators_'?" Aelita asked Puck.

"Wait and find out," Puck hushed her as the phone rang. The woman answered it.

"Hello?" The elfin woman asked into it, and her eyes lit up when she heard who it was. "Oh, hi! It's so good to hear your voice again! How's everything going over there?" She paused, and the pair could hear a man speaking through the phone. "Really? That's fantastic!"

The elfin woman's eyes lit up. "Oh, while I've got you on the phone, we haven't decided on names yet. So, what do you want to name it if it's a girl?" She asked, and the man on the other end said something that sounded like a question, even from the distance Aelita and Puck were at. "No, I don't have a clue as to what it is… I can't go to the doctor and find out, remember?" The elf woman paused as the man said something. "Hmm, Isabelle, you say? Isabelle Belpois, Belle Belpois…" She said, mocking the man's girl name choice.

"Of course I'm right. I'm always right." The woman laughed, and she paused so the man could suggest another name. "Mystique? That's pretty, and we could call her Mysty…" The woman paused, but not so the man could say something else. "I like Vèronique… then we could call her Vero… well, when the baby's born and if it's a girl, we'll see if she looks more like a Mystique or Vèronique, 'kay?"

She switched the phone to the other ear. "Okay, boys' names now. What do you like?" The elfin woman paused so her husband could speak. "Raoul? That's sweet…" She paused, and she said, "I like the name Jeremy." Her eyes seemed elsewhere. The elfin woman began to hum again.

Aelita smiled as the elfin woman continued to talk into the phone. "This was cute, Puck. Are we going to leave soon? I don't understand what this has to do with anything…"

"Shush." Puck silenced her. "We didn't come for this, we were just early."

In-between her humming, the elfin woman spoke to the man, "The baby likes this tune. I can't explain it. I wish you were here…" She paused so the man could talk, and when the man paused, she seemed sad when he continued. "Oh. Okay. No, I understand. I love you. I hope you come home soon. Okay, bye." She hung the phone up on the receiver and sighed. She placed her hands on her pregnant stomach and stood to walk back into the kitchen. When a knock came to the door, she sighed, placed her hands on her back for a moment, and went to answer it.

Aelita and Puck watched as the elfin woman answered the door. On the other side stood a man, but they could tell by the elfin woman's reaction that he was not the man she'd just been talking to. When Aelita looked at him closer, she saw that the man almost looked like Laurelei—average height, dark hair, violet eyes, and while Aelita found it very strange; it appeared to her that the man wore purple lipstick. Unlike Laurelei, however, he dressed nicely and he seemed oblivious to the fact the elfin woman was stunned by his arrival. "Can I…?" The woman began, stopping to look the man over before starting over. "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I hope so." The man said, and he added, "I was hoping you would allow me to spend the night here. I have a meeting in the morning and the hotel forgot to register my reservation. I'll be gone early, and I won't be much of a bother…" He looked her over and noticed her elf ears. "Besides, us creatures have to stick together, right?"

The woman simply nodded and allowed him in. "Why did… how did…" She stuttered, and the man looked at her in a friendly way. "…how did you know that a creature lived here?" She asked.

"I didn't. I got lucky, I suppose." The man shrugged. "Do you mind if I smoke? Some people mind."

"No, no, go ahead." The woman shook her head.

"Thank you," The man said, pulling a pipe from his pocket and a box of matches from another. "My name is Gael, madam," He said, lighting the pipe and sticking it in his mouth.

The scenery faded before Aelita heard the elf woman's name. She blinked, and she looked at Puck. "What just happened?"

Puck paused before he responded. "Jeremy's mother was confronted by a gancanagh. A traditional one, too—this she knew. But, like most, she gave in."

"Why did you show me that?" Aelita begged. "I could've lived without knowing that!"

"Well, for starters, she's pregnant." Puck raised an eyebrow, as if that answered Aelita's question.

"I can see that!" Aelita put her hands on her hips. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Puck sighed. "Because she gives in, she becomes addicted. Jeremy, in a few years, will give in and become addicted. Do you see the connection?"

"What connection? Defense against gancanagh is genetic?" Aelita asked.

"No!" Puck was practically tearing his hair out. "Jeremy ay may sakit! Ang kanyang sakit saktan ang kanyang kakayahan upang labanan Laurelei! Karamihan sa mga kababaihan ay hindi maaaring pigilan ang isang lalaki gancanagh, ngunit-akit ng isang babae gancanagh ay mas mababa kaysa sa isang lalaki gancanagh's!"

Aelita stared at the elf. "Okay, I understood 'Jeremy,' Laurelei,' and 'gancanagh,' but that was it." She said, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "But, on the bright side, the fact that I can't understand a word you said means that this nightmare is almost over."

Puck sighed as Aelita faded away.

* * *

Aelita opened her eyes and she saw her bedroom around her. On her bedside table, she saw a notecard. She picked it up and read what was written on it. _Good-night. Be safe. Lock your doors and windows. From all of us—Jeremy, Lyna, Yumi, Gus, Ulrich and Odd._ Aelita smiled, and she shook her head. She remembered the gang dropping Lukas off at his house, which was why his name was not on the card. Ligaya slept on a pillow next to her, and it probably wouldn't have been able to hold the pen if it had been awake, anyway. Aelita got out of bed and looked out her window. She could see vampires stalking around in the forest, but the snow was falling again. She opened her bedroom door and looked out into the living room. When she didn't see her mother, she opened the master bedroom door. "Mommy?" Aelita asked, walking into the room.

Anthea stirred, and then she sat up. "What is it, sweetie?" She asked.

"Did the others tell you already…?" Aelita closed the door.

"Tell me what?" Anthea patted her bed to signal Aelita to lay down with her.

"About the vampires." Aelita said, looking into her mother's eyes after crawling under the covers.

"What about the vampires?" Her mother asked, pulling the frail thirteen-year-old girl closer to her.

"They've invaded Earth." Aelita said, and Anthea opened her eyes to look at her. "I already saw them kill two people, and they'll probably kill more as the night goes on." Anthea said nothing at first, and then she stood. "Where are you going?" Aelita asked, following her mother with her eyes.

Anthea remained silent, digging around in her jewelry box. She pulled out a necklace, and she presented it to Aelita. It was plain, but inside, something pink swirled around. "When we moved, your powers were trapped inside this. You're sick, and I didn't want you to tire yourself with it, so I didn't give it to you." Anthea walked over to her daughter and placed the necklace around her neck. "But if vampires are patrolling Earth and killing people, you need this for protection."

"What do you mean?" Aelita asked, holding the sphere in the palm of her hand. "Is this like garlic or something? Will it keep them away?"

"No, but it will allow you to use some of your powers." Anthea said, tapping Aelita's nose, causing both pink haired females to smile. "You can keep the vampires at bay with your powers instead of a clove of garlic. Much more effective, I'd say."

Aelita laughed. "Thank you," She looked back to the necklace. "It's pretty."

"Just remember," Anthea began, and Aelita looked at her. "Whatever you do, don't break it. Your illness prevents you from reabsorbing it, and there are two options of what could happen if it's released."

Aelita waited for her mother to tell her. "What could happen?" She sighed.

Anthea laughed. "One; your powers could electrocute you upon reentry, or two; someone else could absorb it, which would not only give them your powers but also kill you."

"Why would it kill me?" Aelita asked. "I can live just fine when it's absorbed by our house…"

"That's different, sweetie." Anthea pushed a hair from Aelita's face. "The house doesn't have a heartbeat. The house doesn't breathe. The house won't send out every drop of your power to protect you, but it will try its hardest to protect you. If you break this necklace, your powers will manifest into a form that looks like you and with try to protect you from there. By the first attack, the person who is a threat to your safety will know that you aren't really attacking them.

"If the threat speaks of someone your powers have seen and identified, and the threat speaks of that person in a way that even suggests that the person could defeat them in a fight, your powers will shift their manifestation to that person. If the person it shifts to actually obeys every word the threat says, the threat will be able to order your powers to stay in that manifestation, and from there, absorb it." Anthea explained, curling Aelita's fingers over the sphere that held her powers.

Aelita looked at it. "…Mommy?" She asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you think I'll ever be cured in a way that my powers will work on Earth?"

"What?"

"I'm sick. Do you think I'll ever be cured?"

"Of course I do, sweetie."

Aelita nodded. "Oh." She said, and she stood. She walked towards the door and opened, but before she left and closed the door, she said, "Because I think there's no hope."

Anthea's heart broke at those words. She thought about what her daughter had said, and then said, "What does she mean, 'work on Earth'?"

* * *

A/N: Nope, I'll never stop using the circus theme! She's humming it to pre-birth Jeremy because the circus calls to mind people who can do strange and awe-inspiring things in silly costumes. Well, that's not _why _she hums it to him—she hums it to him because he likes hearing it, apparently—but that's why I use it so often. I used it in the second chapter of book one (Industrial Code 1:2) because the circus also calls to mind freaks and animals in cages. But now it's also because it's what his mother hummed to him before he was born!

Anyway, Puck said something along the lines of that because Jeremy's mother gave in, she became addicted, and the addiction affected him because he was (somewhat) there, too. It's sort of like when meth addicts have babies. The babies are born meth addicts. It's not their fault, but they are. Jeremy's mother gave in, became addicted, and while Jeremy didn't become addicted, his mother's addiction weakened his defense.

Actually, after he's born, his mother can see/feel that in him and she runs off. A few weeks later, Jeremy's dad gets divorce papers, but also something that gave him custody. His mother goes off chasing Gael (the gancanagh) because she's addicted to him, and she dies trying. (As Gert said in a 'Runaways' comic once: "Figures. Even when they're _**dead**_, they still find a way to make you _**suffer**_." {Referring to Karolina's parents for setting up an arranged marriage for Karolina})

Long _Author's Note_. I apologize.


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter Sixteen: The Forgotten Days_

Aelita followed the titles of the numerous books Jeremy kept in his room. She muttered their names as she skimmed them, and she exclaimed, 'a-ha' when she found the book she'd heard the elf mention before. "The Xanadu's Handout; '_The History and Running of the Xanadu Clan._'" She said, opening the book. "I wonder why he even bothered to keep this." She muttered to herself, tracing her fingers across the chicken scratches Jeremy had written his name in years ago. The chicken scratches smudged, and Aelita looked at her fingers. She held back a laugh when she saw the grey marks on them. "He wrote his name in pencil. That's so cute."

Odd rolled his eyes. "Keep your head in the game, princess." He snapped, glancing into the hallway. "We don't have all day."

"I'm hurrying, Odd!" Aelita snapped back at him. "And don't call me 'princess!' It's awkward!"

"Why? I thought it was a nice nickname for you." Her cousin shrugged.

Aelita stared at him, and he threw his four-fingered paws up. She flipped through the book, Ligaya twirling innocently on the sphere draped around Aelita's neck. Aelita skimmed the pages, looking for the symbol of Xana, and the pages stopped when she came across a picture wedged inside. She paused, and she removed it. It was then she saw it was not one picture but several. She looked at them. The first was a picture of Yumi as a young girl in a school picture. She looked about eleven or twelve, and her black hair was pulled back. The grey background seemed bright and caught in the wind.

Smiling, Aelita turned to the next picture. It was Gus in a school picture, like Yumi's before him. He, too, looked about eleven or twelve, and his dark eyes were big and innocent. He still had dreadlocks, but they were pulled back into a ponytail on his neck. The next picture was of Lyna in a school picture, and Aelita looked at it strangely. It wasn't that Lyna looked strange, but that it was a school picture. Aelita hadn't expected to see a school photo of either of the elves. Lyna's hair was in twin braids, and it looked longer then. Aelita could see that Lyna's ears were longer than most humans' and pointy, but they didn't stick out, and they looked like normal ears in the fact that they didn't show emotion.

The next picture wasn't a school picture of neither Jeremy nor Ulrich. It was Ulrich in a store, his arms in the standard 'what' position. He looked about thirteen, but Yumi stood next to him and appeared younger than him. The next photo was of Lyna's mother and Jeremy's father on their wedding day, Lyna and Jeremy clearly resisting the urge to pummel each other at their feet.

The next photograph was of Yumi, Lyna and Jeremy in a red and grey room. The elves appeared to be twelve, and the demigoddess seemed to be thirteen. Lyna stood awkwardly with her eyes shut and her mouth laughing on the left. Jeremy stood in the middle, his arms crossed. He was clearly not amused. Yumi stood on the right, smiling as she clutched a red book. Her black turtleneck was tucked into her pants*. Aelita turned to the next photo, and it was off all five of the original gang. Ulrich appeared to be the oldest at thirteen, then Yumi and Gus at eleven or twelve, and then the elves at ten.

Aelita turned to the next picture. It was a school photo of Jeremy, his blond hair messy but his blue eyes sparkling. His ears, like Lyna's ears, were long and pointed but didn't stick out or show emotion. He appeared to only be ten years old, but blue braces straightened his teeth. When the human girl went to turn to the next picture, it turned out to be the first. She paused for a moment before taking Jeremy's school picture and placing it in her pocket. "Aelita? Houston to Aelita! Mayday, mayday, we are down!" Odd shouted in her ear, scaring her a bit.

"It's 'Houston, we have a problem.'" Aelita said, flipping through the pages of the book after replacing the remaining pictures between the pages. "I just got distracted, okay? I'm on it,"

"Hurry up! Einstein will be back any second!" Odd sighed loudly.

Aelita stuck out her tongue at her cousin. "Here we go! Xana's symbol. It says here that anyplace marked with his symbol is a safe house for magical creatures." She reported, placing the book on a table so she could see what the symbol looked like upside down. "That looks so familiar…" She muttered.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Odd waved her off. "On to the important stuff. Do you really think that you can make me human again?" He asked, eyes sparkling.

"Well, not permanently," She shrugged, nudging Ligaya with her finger and holding the sphere a few inches from her lips. It glowed, and her fingertips did the same. "But human appearances will become easier to façade. My guess is that if you try to use your Laser Arrows or something, your human appearance will fade." She reported, drawing on her cousin's forehead with her glowing fingers. "The Xanadu turned you this way, so this symbol should be able to reverse it temporarily."

Odd waited for his cousin to finish before he looked in the mirror. He waited, but nothing happened. "This spell's a dud. It didn't work."

Aelita sighed. "Did you think something amazing would happen right away? Concentrate a little."

"Concentrate? You mean… think?"

"Actually, I expect you to think intensely, but, yes; think."

"Whoops. Sorry, this guinea pig doesn't have enough brain power to find the cheese at the end of this maze."

"Guinea pigs don't chase cheese. Mice do."

"Ooh, mice? Yum."

"_What?_"

"What?"

"Did you just say 'yum' to _mice?_"

"Hey, I'm part cat! That was it speaking!"

Aelita placed her head in her hand. Ligaya flew up and patted her shoulder sympathetically. "Odd, just think human thoughts. Avoid thoughts about mice."

"What about birds? Can I think about birds?"

"Only if you're thinking about chickens."

"Chickens? Are you crazy? I was thinking pigeons…"

"Gross! Could you try to be civil for once?"

"Whatever." Odd shrugged before leaving, flicking his tail around. Aelita huffed, and she placed the book back on the shelf.

Ligaya flew around her head slowly. "_Aelita mad? Odd big dumb beastie, yes?_" The pixie asked, and Aelita nodded with a smile. She twirled the necklace and watched as the energy inside of it moved like lightning. "_I pull Odd hair, yes?_" Ligaya clarified before buzzing off.

The human girl watched it go. She pulled out the school photo and looked at it intensely, her irises shivering as she did so. Her eyes began to glow pink, and on the photo, the younger Jeremy's blue eyes began to glow as well. Aelita felt her mind slip away.

_

* * *

_

Thursday, September 1

_st__, 2005_

"Okay, Mr. Belpois, smile for the camera now…" The man behind the camera said, and Aelita blinked when she saw the flash. She rubbed her eyes and heard the man say, "Okay, you're alright. Go join the rest of your class that have had their pictures taken already. _Next!_"

When Aelita's eyes adjusted, she saw a library around her. Having never seen a library before, her eyes brightened. "I'm in heaven." She laughed quietly. She spun around, and when she noticed she was on a collision course with the camera, she flinched. Aelita passed right through it. "Oh… I'm a ghost here. How disappointing—I can't turn the pages with ghost hands." She looked at her hands, and she noticed that they were bare. She looked herself over, and she realized she was in her autumn pajamas. "How strange."

She turned her attention for the blond student with glasses and abnormally long ears. He looked about ten years old, and her eyes brightened again. "Jeremy!" She called out, and to her surprise, he turned. He looked right at her, and unlike most people, he seemed to see her.

Younger Jeremy smiled at her. "Oh, it's you, Aelita." He said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He wore a graphic blue tee-shirt and jeans. His sneakers had dirty and pale blue shoelaces that were untied. He wore a messenger bag that seemed almost too big for him. "It's nice to see you again."

Aelita smiled, and then he eyes widened. The Jeremy she knew was a teenager, that she was sure. The Jeremy standing in front of her was ten years old. It was impossible for him to know who she was. "How did you know my name?" She asked, recoiling.

The young elf boy paused. "I see you all the time, but sometimes you remember what we've done and sometimes you don't. It's frustrating." Jeremy said, crossing his arms. "I saw you a couple of weeks ago. And about a month before that."

She said nothing for a long time as she considered that. She was present in Jeremy's past, but he never mentioned it. She became angry for a moment before she remembered Laurelei. Aelita felt bad for being angry, knowing that Jeremy had lost a lot when Laurelei entered his life. Memories of her must have faded during that time. She didn't know when Jeremy and Laurelei had gotten together for the first time, but she knew it couldn't be more than a few years away from that moment. "Really? A few weeks ago?" She asked.

"Yes, but you were much older then," Jeremy nodded in the naïve way children do. "Twenty, I guess?" He pondered the age for a moment. "You said something about it taking forever to find a new photo of me at this age. Do you know what that means?"

Aelita shook her head. "No, I don't. What else did I say?"

Jeremy thought for a moment. His eyes lit up as he remembered something. "Yes! You gave me a list of things to do, and you said to do them in the order they were listed." He dug around in his bag for the list. He presented it high above his head as the bell rang. "Recess! Come on!" He said, running down the hallway. Aelita followed him, running barefoot through the hallway. The sky was a sickly grey color, but it didn't faze the young elf boy. He ran to the forest's edge and sat on a tree stump. He looked at the list in confusion and waited for Aelita to catch up.

"Okay…" Aelita placed her hands on her knees and huffed. "What does the list say?"

"Well, first, it says for me to tell you not to panic at anything you see. This is your first encounter with 'little' me, apparently. What does that mean?" Young Jeremy said, looking to the ghostly human girl.

Aelita hesitated. She remembered that Jeremy wouldn't remember any of it when he got older, and she smiled. "I didn't meet you until October 2009. I stole your shoes."

Jeremy looked at her. "Oh." He said. He looked back to the list and paused again. Before he spoke, he pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. "Next thing it tells me to do is to tell you that I didn't rape you."

She raised an eyebrow. "What does that mean?"

The elf's eyes brightened. "It means I didn't poke you in the belly button for five seconds**!"

"Oh. Really?" She said, placing a hand over her belly button.

Jeremy nodded. "Now I'm supposed to give you this." He said, placing the list on his lap. Aelita looked at it, and it looked like the chicken scratches he'd used to write his name on the inside of the Xanadu's handout. As he dug through his messenger bag, she wondered if he even knew that he was an elf, let alone what the Xanadu Clan was. He pulled out a brown book and handed it to her. "When you gave this to me last time, you said to tell you that you aren't allowed to read it until after you get better. Does that mean something to you?"

Aelita's eyes brightened as she took the book. "Yes. It means I'm finally going to get better! Did I say when?" She asked as she tried to open it. It had seemed like a normal book at first, but when she tried to force open the cover, a pink light appeared on the edges. When the pink light faded, Aelita could see the silver lock that the pink light had left.

"No. I don't even know what you meant by that." The elf said, and he looked at the list. He blushed, and he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He said nothing.

"Are you okay, Jeremy?" She asked, placing the book down as she reached out for him. When she reached him, she passed through him. "Darn," She said, pulling her hand back to look at it.

Jeremy shook his head. "Fine." He said, adjusting his glasses. "Aelita…?" He opened his mouth to add something, and when Aelita smiled when she saw his braces, he saw the smile and blushed. He said something, but what he said didn't seem to be what he wanted to say at first. "Um… don't ever be too certain about the future. It can change instantly."

Aelita's smile dropped. "Oh." She said, rubbing her fingers over the book. She sighed. "Anything else on the list?"

He paused. He nodded, as if trying to gather the nerve. "_Aelita, I think you're beautiful!_" He shouted suddenly, scaring the translucent human girl as he did so.

She said nothing for what felt like eternity, and then her expression became angry. "Did I tell you to say that? That's so self-centered." She said, taking the list from him. She couldn't read the chicken scratches, and she waved her hand over it. The chicken scratches formed in a way that she could read it. She traced the list with her eyes until she found the one about giving her the book. Her eyes fell to the next item on the list. '_Tell me what you really think of me._' She blushed, handing him the list.

"I'm sorry if that was unwanted…" Jeremy muttered. "It said to tell you what I thought of you, and that's what I think… I feel a little silly talking to you sometimes, Aelita, but only when others are around… I'm the only one who can see you, and I'm the only one who can hear you, but that doesn't stop me from thinking you're—" He was interrupted when he fell forward off the stump. The ten-year-old elf fell through Aelita's body and hit the grass.

"Jeremy! Are you alright?" She asked seconds before she heard someone laughing. She turned and saw a group of overgrown boys standing close together, their laughs hysterical.

"Talking to your invisible girlfriend again, Bell-Butt?" The largest teased the elf boy.

"Bell-Butt," Aelita repeated, unenthused. "How creative." She complimented sarcastically. "Who are these jerks?"

Jeremy wiped a grass stain from beneath his bottom lip before responding quietly, "Just the school bullies. They hear me talking to you sometimes and they tease me about it."

The largest member yanked Jeremy up by the collar of his tee-shirt. "How many times will we have to pound into you that your girlfriend don't exist?"

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "ʻGirlfriend don't,'" He mocked. "English isn't even my first language and I speak it better than you do. It's 'girlfriend doesn't.' And, for your information, she does exist! And she's _not_ my girlfriend!"

"Whatever, Bell-Butt. Do you need time to warn your invisible girlfriend before we pound you into a dorky puddle of meat?" The bully asked, pulling his fist back. Jeremy squeezed his eyes shut as he prepared for impact.

By now, Aelita had seen enough. She held onto her necklace and shouted, "_Hey!_ I can _hear_ you, you know!" She focused on making herself heard and seen. The bullies looked at her, and Jeremy looked at her with wide eyes. "Put him down _now._" She ordered.

The bully resisted, and then shouted back, "Make me, Bubble Gum Brain!"

Aelita smirked. She lifted her arms, and her hands began to glow pink, as did her eyes. The bully's arm began to glow pink as well, and he dropped Jeremy. She dropped her arms, and as she began to fade, she said, "That's _Princess_ Bubble Gum Brain, to you."

The bully looked around, and his friends scattered. Jeremy looked from Aelita to the bully, his expression shocked. "You're dead next time, Bell-Butt!" He shouted at the elf before chasing after his friends. Jeremy stood shakily on his feet, and he leaned on the stump for support.

He looked at Aelita, who was transparent but still present. "How did you do that?"

"It's the Kaliwanagan. You'll learn more about it as you grow up." Aelita smiled.

"The Kali-whatchamacallit? What's that?" Jeremy asked.

"Wait a while, Jeremy!" She laughed.

He remained serious. "Will you tell me something, Aelita?"

Aelita thought for a moment. "I suppose."

"Will I ever become strong?" He asked, leaning forward on the stump. "Or magic, like you?"

Aelita smiled again. She would have ruffled his hair had she been able to. "My sources say both." She said, closing her eyes as she smiled wider. She picked up her book and smiled in the same way again. "Very soon, too, I'll bet. Ask me again the next time we meet. I'll tell you more then."

Jeremy smiled, and he noticed that Aelita was beginning to fade. "Wait! When will you be coming back again?" He called out as she did so.

"I don't know. Soon, I hope." Aelita thought for a moment before continuing, "But whenever it is, I'll be glad to see you!"

The elf hopped the stump and ran for her. She was gone before he reached her. He sighed heavily, picked up his messenger bag and the list. He read over the list quickly and blinked. He crumpled it up and tossed it into a trash can. When he walked by a student at a water fountain, the water became uncontrollable and shot the student in the face, drenching them.

* * *

Aelita opened her eyes and saw her hand outstretched in front of her. She was lying on the floor, and she saw the picture in her hand. She sat up quickly and focused on the picture. Her eyes began to glow, but unlike the first time, the younger version of Jeremy's eyes did not retain its glowing characteristic. She sighed. "I guess it's a one-shot thing for each picture." She placed the picture in her pocket and felt the sphere on her necklace. It was in one piece, despite her lying on it. She sighed with relief. Aelita stood shakily, and as she did so, Jeremy opened his bedroom door.

"Aelita? What are you doing in my bedroom?" He asked, and Aelita stared at him for a moment. She smiled, walked up to him and embraced him. "Uh… Aelita? Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm feeling fine." She said, and then she looked at him sternly. "Say, Jeremy, did you and Lyna ever go to public school?" Aelita asked.

Jeremy blinked a few times. "Uh, yeah. When we were little, I mean. When Lyna and I turned eleven, we both hit puberty, and with elves, that includes the development of our powers and our ears start to stick out and show emotion." He explained, his ears reflecting his shocked expression, as if to add a visual aide to the explanation. "Our parents pulled us out of public school after that."

Aelita nodded. When she said nothing more, Jeremy asked, "Why do you ask…?"

She shrugged. "I felt like asking, I suppose. I never went to school. I didn't know if you had or not." She walked out and was nearly knocked over by Lyna as she did so.

"Jeremy!" Lyna shouted, out of breath and clearly distressed. "The Xanadu's Army is coming closer!"

Both Aelita and Jeremy's eyes opened wider. Lyna said something quickly to Aelita, and she didn't catch what it said. Nevertheless, Lyna pulled Aelita somewhere. Jeremy ran for his doorway to prepare for battle if necessary when he noticed something on his floor. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was a brown book with a silver lock on it. "What the hell is this?" He asked himself, and she shrugged. He added it to his bookshelf and ran out of his bedroom.

* * *

*My DeviantArt account is the website on my profile. If you go to my gallery, you should find an image by me entitled 'The Photograph.' The photo this asterisk is compatible with is the same as 'The Photograph.'

**This is actually another definition for rape, according to the people who used to ride my bus. Whether or not it's five continuous seconds, I have no idea.

* * *

A/N: This made me think of '_the Time Traveler's Wife._' The book. I didn't see the movie. Anyone else get that vibe? Apparently Aelita will be spending a lot of time with Lil' Jeremy in the future. (Or past. It's hard to tell when people time travel.)


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter Seventeen: The Pawns_

**Fair Warning: This Chapter is NOT for the Easily Queasy**

Laurelei stared over the cliff. She'd ordered some of her creatures that weren't helping the vampires destroy mankind to clear-cut the area around the cliff. The forest was still dense in some areas, and the outside trees had traps made of darkness attached to them. Just below the cliff side floated the Scyphozoa, ready with the distraction. Laurelei was ready for the final step to destruction of the human race. She laughed evilly, thinking of how Jeremy would react when he learned that she only let him believe that he was one step ahead. She heard the gang move closer, and even from the distance she was at, she could sense the human girl's energy signature. She smirked, and she pretended like she couldn't hear their footsteps. The first round—Ulrich, Odd and Yumi, she realized—charged, and they tripped the traps. Laurelei pretended like she didn't hear it. Lyna and Gus ran forward and tried to get the three down. They ended up getting trapped in the final two traps.

She hadn't bothered making actual traps for Jeremy, the human girl or the pixie of theirs. Laurelei would trap the creatures herself, and soon after the plan began, the human girl wouldn't be breathing to notice if she was in a trap or not.

Laurelei turned and faced the remaining three. Jeremy charged, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw the Scyphozoa rise up. "Attack the human girl," Laurelei ordered it. It made a squish-like noise before doing as the gancanagh ordered.

Jeremy backed up. When he saw that it was headed for the human girl, he shouted, "Aelita, _run!_"

Aelita. That was the human girl's name. Laurelei never made an effort to remember it.

She laughed as the teens ran. She stuffed her hands into her pockets and watched at Jeremy and Aelita tried hopelessly to destroy the Scyphozoa. It wrapped its tentacles around Aelita, and the pixie grabbed the necklace and flew around, as if it would stop the Scyphozoa. It placed the three tentacles it used to drain memory around her head.

Typically, at that point, the Scyphozoa would steal the memories of its victim until there was no drop of life left in it. It had been given a new mission for the delivery of the apocalypse of mankind; it was to insert edited memories of Laurelei and Jeremy into Aelita's head. Laurelei had been replaced with Aelita, and the sound was changed to make it sound aggravated. Laurelei had replaced the warm feeling she got from the memories with one of terror. The memories would then overtake any pleasant memory of Jeremy it could find, and Aelita would become afraid of him. When the Scyphozoa dropped Aelita, the necklace she wore would break, and the bigger prize would be revealed.

As the thought crossed the gancanagh's mind, the Scyphozoa dropped the human girl. The pixie dropped the necklace, afraid of choking Aelita. Aelita hit the snow, landing on a hidden rock and breaking the glass sphere holding her powers inside. The powers lifted itself from the glass and scanned the area. It noticed the Scyphozoa, and it shot a powerful beam of energy at it. The Scyphozoa collapsed onto the snow.

Laurelei was shocked. "What?" She hissed. "It was supposed to absorb those memories! It was supposed to attack Jeremy!" She pushed a stray hair from her face. "No matter. This will simply make it easier." She smirked.

Aelita's powers—the Kaliwanagan, Laurelei remembered—scanned the area again. It bowed to Jeremy respectively, and the elf boy did the same. When the mass of energy spotted Laurelei, its excess energy spun around it until it had Aelita's shape. The light dimmed to reveal an exact replica of Aelita. The replica charged at Laurelei, who deflected its every attack. Laurelei glanced at the real Aelita run into the dense forest with Jeremy on her tail. She smirked, and then sent the replica Aelita into the snow. "You pathetic doppelgänger! The only person to every knock me down in a fight was Jeremy when he was addicted to me and I ordered him to!" Laurelei taunted.

The replica Aelita sat up in the snow, and then stood. Since it was closer, Laurelei could hear the replica sing as the energy surrounded it. When the energy parted, standing in the replica Aelita's place was a replica Jeremy. It wasn't a copy of the Jeremy who had been around only seconds earlier but of Jeremy when he was addicted to her. The replica lunged, as if to attack, but it shuddered and fell to its knees in the snow. It glanced around, and it said, "What binds me here?" It looked around again, slower the second time, and it reported, "Still cannot find what keeps me here…" It was mainly Jeremy's voice, but Aelita's voice was underneath it.

Laurelei approached the replica in a deceptive way. "I absolutely forbid you from changing from that form." She ordered in a sweet voice. The replica Jeremy looked at her, and she smiled. "You're lost and confused. Here, let me absorb you. I can take you to your mistress and we'll all go home happy." Laurelei lied through her teeth. The replica searched her eyes for a while, and she offered it her hands. It hesitated for a few minutes, and then placed its hands on hers.

Laurelei laughed, and she gripped the replica's hands. It struggled to escape, and its body became pink energy. It remained in Jeremy's shape, and soon, the energy surged through Laurelei's arms and into her body. There was soon nothing left to speak of.

* * *

Aelita opened her eyes to Jeremy and Ligaya. "What happened?" She asked, sitting up, not really acknowledging who was around her. When she did, she stared at Jeremy. Thousands of awful memories flooded her skull, and her eyes widened in terror.

"Some squid creature got you. Do you remember what happened when you were trapped in its tentacles?" Jeremy responded, offering Aelita his hand. Aelita saw a terrible image of Jeremy in her head and she scrambled to her feet and ran. "Aelita! Where are you going? _Wait!_" He chased after her.

She didn't stop. She pushed her back against a tree, exhausted. She panted, and she stared at the thousands of eyes staring down at her. Some came closer, and she saw many women, their ages ranging from Aelita's age to twice her mother's age. Some of the women looked away from her and made a passageway for someone. Aelita screamed when she saw Jeremy run closer to her, and she shrank back against the tree, trying to make herself as small as possible. Jeremy leaned on his knees, panting. "Aelita… what's _wrong_ with you…?" He asked, looking at her.

"What's wrong with _me?_" Aelita shouted defensively. "What's wrong with _you?_" She countered, and when Jeremy walked a few steps closer, she learned she was unable to shrink back any farther. She considered running, but the women surrounding them made it impossible. "After all you did to me, you still have the audacity to walk up to me like nothing happened?"

As Aelita spoke to him sharply, Jeremy couldn't help but feel as if he was missing something.

Suddenly, Aelita feared that he would strike her, and she wished she could sink into the tree. When she accepted that she could not, she decided to continue. "Of all the vile, bloodthirsty, abhorred things that you've done to me and others, Jeremy, this is one of the worst!" She shouted, waiting for the strike she felt was imminent.

Jeremy could say nothing. He wasn't exactly sure what he'd done to Aelita, but he knew for a fact he'd done vile, bloodthirsty, abhorred things in his fourteen years. He couldn't help but ask, "What have I done to you, Aelita?"

She laughed bitterly. "Oh, what haven't you done? I can still feel you, see you, hear you from every single night…" She shuddered and continued. "They may have faded, but I can find every cut, bump and bruise…" She rubbed her arms. The older women surrounding the teens began to emit a low-pitched shriek. Aelita's eyes turned pink for a moment as she said, "…from every night you raped me." She shuddered more violently than before.

Her words felt like she had ripped a hole in him and dropped several hundred pound weights on his heart. "What are you talking about?" He asked, wanting to comfort her and get rid of the evil and false thoughts that had somehow gotten into her head. "I swear on whatever's left of my soul that I didn't rape you."

"Like he—" She couldn't continue. The pink glow of her eyes turned black. She fell to her knees. "Like…" She tried again, and the other women joined in with the older women. Their shrieking grew in pitch and volume. Aelita's green eyes, once lush, lost their life. She grabbed her head and dug her nails into her scalp. She began to scream, and the creatures in front of her ran forward to try and find out what was wrong. Aelita reached for her necklace and stared at the broken glass sphere.

"_Aelita! Aelita tell Jeremy what, yes?_" Ligaya said, fluttering in-between the teens.

Aelita had no more strength left to more her head. She had no strength left to breathe or think. She didn't even have enough strength to keep her heart beating. She looked to the creatures next to her, and Jeremy pulled her into his arms. The shrieking of the women became louder and higher pitched. Jeremy finally recognized them as banshees, sirens that shrieked to announce the death of someone they considered important. It was usually Irish families, but Aelita was the heir to the throne of creatures.

Jeremy looked to the banshees. "Oh, _God,_ please, no," He said, his eyes welling with tears as the banshees' shrieks became higher pitched and louder. "No! Anyone but Aelita!" He screamed over them, pulling the dying human girl closer to him. He looked down to Aelita as she died. "No! Please don't die! Don't leave me here alone! _Please!_"

Aelita had been breathing slowly when he said that. After he did, she stopped altogether. He waited for fifteen seconds. Then thirty. Forty-five. "_**Aelita!**_" He shouted at the top of his lungs.

* * *

Laurelei used the stolen Kaliwanagan to create a talisman for Major Winston. "This should leave you and your troops immune to both suns. Wear this for a few days on Lyoko and you'll be completely immune to the Lyoko sun, with or without the talisman. Unfortunately, it doesn't work the same way with Earth's sun. You have to have the talisman on during all daylight hours on Earth." Laurelei reported, and the vampire leader nodded. He fastened it around his neck.

"Thank you." He said, and they shook hands. "We will be returning to Lyoko for a few days to deal with a little problem involving a dragon or two… but we shall return." Major Winston and his troops walked in the direction of the Passage Tower.

Laurelei looked to her father. "Dad, this is rightfully yours. I'm sure you can use it better than I can, anyway." She gripped Xana's hands and pink energy transferred from her to her father. She stretched, feeling better with the energy out of her. She closed her eyes for a second, and when she opened them again, Xana looked like a mummy made of ice in a cage made of the same. "Dad?" She asked, and she was pegged in the head with an ice ball. She yelped, and she shot death daggers in the direction it had come from. "Jeremy," She muttered.

He stepped forward, and he crossed his arms. His eyes alone told Laurelei that he wasn't there to negotiate. "So, did you intentionally kill Aelita…" He began, and when Laurelei faced him, she could almost see the anger and mourning radiating off of him. "…or was that just the god damn bonus?" He finished, ready to kill the gancanagh, whatever the cost.

"Oh, a little of both, I suppose." Laurelei said, examining her nails. "We got the Kaliwanagan from her and now she can't take her 'rightful place' as Human Queen. Win/Win, I say."

Jeremy took a deep breath in, and then let it out. Why he did so, he didn't know why. "What about all of the people you're hurting? What about the families of creatures that await for the return of Aelita? Who do you think you're helping?"

Laurelei said nothing. "It's the 'me' generation, Jeremy. I'm helping me." She paused and added, "You and your friends were just the pawns."

Laurelei turned, and she waited for Jeremy to charge at her. When he didn't, she turned to face him again, and she fell backwards into the snow. She felt slash after slash applied to her face, and she was so shocked that she didn't know what was going on. She heard Jeremy shouting, "You give Aelita memories of me raping her—something that never happened—so I would be too preoccupied to see you absorbing her powers!" He stopped slashing at her and got very close to her face so there would be no misunderstandings. "I can live with you stealing my innocence. I can live with you making me kill all of those innocent people. I can live with you ruining my life. I won't live happily, but I can live with it. But I can't live with you killing Aelita." Jeremy and Laurelei looked into each other's eyes, and Laurelei thought that she'd worn him down enough to strike.

As she prepared to, Jeremy ripped the eyeballs out of her sockets in blind fury. She screamed in pain, blood flowing like tears from her eye sockets. He dropped them, and he grabbed a rock and placed it near Laurelei's head. He placed her head on it, and he struck the back of her head repeatedly with it. He heard her skull crack, but he didn't care. He continued to bash Laurelei's head against the rock he'd chosen until he heard it break and the cracking noise he'd so enjoyed was replaced by an unsettling slush-like noise.

It was obvious Laurelei was dead beyond resurrection, but Jeremy had suffered worse than she had. Then the thought crossed his mind about the thousands of others she hurt and killed, and he reached into his sleeve and pulled out Lyna's knife. He dug it deep into her skin and opened up her torso, slashing open her lungs and then dropped the knife in the snow next to Laurelei's corpse. Jeremy grabbed Laurelei's heart and yanked it out of her. When he had, he threw it on the ground and stomped on it.

_Repeatedly._

He stomped on it until he couldn't hold back his tears anymore. He stumbled backwards into someone's arm, and he was hopeful for a moment. He looked up into the dark brown eyes of Gus. It hadn't been who he hoped for, and for that reason, the tears came harder. "Poor dude," Gus said, turning the elf around so he could face him the right way. "Does someone need a man hug?" Gus offered the blond elf, who accepted without even thinking of it. In the middle of the man-hug*, Jeremy's waterworks came in oversized buckets. "Dude… what happened?" The wizard asked, making way so Lyna could step in.

As Lyna spoke to Jeremy, Yumi shuddered when she saw Laurelei's corpse. She looked to Gus and asked, "What happened to Ulrich and Aelita?" Gus shrugged, and they looked at Lyna. Lyna looked to them over her shoulder and mouthed, 'I can't understand a word he's saying.'

* * *

Ulrich found the source of the shrieking. The banshees saw him and made way so he could enter the area they stood around. He looked around, and it seemed normal at first until he tripped over a snow pile. The snow pile had ice walls, and Ulrich noticed immediately that it wasn't a natural snow pile. He stood as saw a little patch of spring grass, complete with blooming flowers. What he saw next would have made him cry had his tear glands not shriveled up after he died.

Aelita was lying in the center of it. She wasn't moving, nor was she breathing. "What happened?" He asked the corpse of Aelita, picking her up out of the grass. Ligaya fluttered its wings slowly and sat of Ulrich's shoulder.

"_Aelita power took by Laurelei. Aelita die when power gone. Aelita say something that no true about Jeremy. Jeremy upset. Jeremy put Aelita in grass with Ligaya so Jeremy come back later for Aelita._" Ligaya explained, its glow a sad blue, deeper blue dripping from her like tears, and Ulrich blinked. His eyes grew hot, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. He walked back towards where the others were.

* * *

"Jeremy, talk like a normal person!" Odd shouted at the elf. "None of us understand you!"

Jeremy repeated himself for what felt like the hundredth time, but still, no one understood what he said. He tried to calm down, but the hardier he tried, the more upset he became. "He doesn't need to explain. I've got what he's blubbering about right here." Ulrich called out, attracting the attention of the others in the gang. They stared at the limp corpse of Aelita in his arms, and they looked to Jeremy, who nodded, his tears staining his face.

The first person other than Jeremy who started to cry was Lyna. Had they not been mourning Aelita, they probably would have laughed at how easily Lyna snapped. Tears were summoned in each member of the group—besides Ulrich, who couldn't cry—and while some let the waterworks out, the others could only stand there, stunned. "How pathetic." They heard Xana say, and everyone in the gang looked at him besides Jeremy. "Mourning the very person who kept you slaves. You cannot even see the _gift_ we've given you."

"_Gift?_" Jeremy repeated, staring at Xana intensely. "How is this a _gift?_ A friend of ours is _dead!_"

"Humans cannot be friends with magical creatures, child." Xana explained. "We are but slaves to them. _If_ we exist at all."

"Shut. The. _Fuck._ Up." Jeremy hissed, conjuring up the snow around him and forced it with everything he had left into him. He froze the snow into solid ice and placed his hands on the ice to shove it into Xana further. Jeremy saw something inside of the ice, and then he felt like he was struck by lightning before it even wasted energy getting to the ground. He screamed because of it, and he stepped backwards, accidentally putting his foot inside Laurelei's still open chest. Jeremy looked at his hands, and Lyna pushed him up the mountain in-between her sobs.

"Let's go, Jeremy," Lyna sobbed, and she wiped a tear from her eyes. "Damn. How are we going to explain this to her mother?"

* * *

*Man-Hugs make everything better. The only thing that would've made Jeremy feel like his good old techno-babbling self again would have been a hug from Aelita, but…

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry if I upset anyone in this chapter by killing Aelita. If it helps any, I spent, like, _forty-five_ minutes in the bathroom crying after I killed her, and I hadn't even finished the chapter yet. I almost started crying again at least five times after that. I'm a wimp, I know…

Oh—if you were paying attention—nope! You weren't paying attention! I won't tell you after all!

Anyway, if you're still crying while you're reading this, I suggest listening to Mary J. Blige. Or Michael Jackson.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter Eighteen: The Restart Button_

_Tuesday, February 14__th__, 2006_

Aelita's eyes snapped open. She saw a younger version of Lyna close the door to the room she was in. Her eyes danced across the room, and she saw that it looked like Jeremy's room with slightly different furnishings. When she found Jeremy, he sat near the window, and he held a packet of papers in his hands. Snow fell slowly out the window.

For a moment, Aelita was afraid of Jeremy, but then she remembered something that he told her when she met his ten-year-old self. She felt a 'duh' moment pass through her head, and it became stronger when she remembered that it hadn't even been the ten-year-old who told her, not really—her future self had told him to tell her.

She looked at the elf, and she realized how much he looked like an elf then. His ears finally stuck out, and they expressed confusion. "Jeremy?" Aelita called out, and when he turned around to face her, she realized that he still looked an awful lot like the ten-year-old, just a little older. His ears made his hair look shorter. Jeremy smiled, his mood changing immediately from confusion to pleasant surprise. "What are you doing?"

"Hi, Aelita. Looking over this application I got in the mail. It's really strange." Jeremy responded, and she walked over to him. "Like, for gender, it says 'Male,' 'Female' and 'Other.' And then it asks for species and lists a whole bunch of magical creatures, but at the bottom, it says 'Human—ha ha, just kidding.'" He raised his eyebrow in confusion, but his smile remained.

Aelita looked over his shoulder, and she saw the header. 'Xanadu Clan,' it said, and she realized that she had gone to the day Jeremy decided to join. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked, preparing for the heartbreak of his answer.

He surprised her. "Actually, no. I mean, since I don't have to go to school anymore, it'll be great to have some other commitment to take its place, but this entire organization seems a little sketchy." He pointed to the question that asked for gender. "I mean, come on! 'Other?' 'Other' isn't a gender!"

She smiled. "That _is_ a little strange. Have you talked to me recently?" She asked, sitting next to him. Aelita managed to sit next to him and lean her head on his shoulder without passing through him. It was at that moment she realized he'd grown at least an inch. Jeremy blushed heavily, and had Aelita been able to feel him, she was sure that she could've felt the heat coming from his cheeks.

"Yeah, I talked to the sixteen-year-old you the Monday before last." Jeremy reported. He looked at Aelita again, and he added, "But you didn't say anything about you showing up today." When Aelita said nothing, he noticed two things—the first being that she was abnormally quiet when he mentioned her future self and the second being that he could see Aelita's reflection in the mirror Lyna had attached to his closet door _through_ her. When he noticed her pink outfit, he complimented, "That's a pretty dress. You don't usually show up in something different than your pajamas."

Aelita looked down at her dress. She said nothing for a while, and he sighed. He squirmed, and Aelita looked at him. Jeremy laughed like someone was tickling him, and she could see something move around in his shirt. A ferret crawled out of the collar of his shirt, and it wrapped itself around Jeremy's neck. Aelita's eyes brightened and she called out, "Mort!"

Jeremy blinked, and he asked, "You know Mort?"

She nodded with a smile, and the ferret looked in her direction. It released a happy squeak. "You remember me? It must be an animal thing." Aelita said, smiling with her eyes nearly closed at the small mammal. The mammal scurried towards her, but when it went to put a paw on her, it nearly fell through her.

Jeremy shook his head. "I'm just surprised that it can see you." He thought for a moment before he looked out the window. "I mean, the only other time Mort had a chance to see you was my tenth birthday, but you didn't see it, and it looked right at you and ignored you."

Aelita laughed, and she remembered that she'd died. It might have been that, but she didn't say anything to Jeremy, not wanting to make him upset. She shook her head and looked at the elf. "So, are you really out of school forever?" She knew the answer, but the silence was getting to her.

He nodded. "It's fine by me, too. I mean, I'll miss the actual educational value of school and all, but I'd rather be here than at school with those bullies."

She blinked. "They were still bothering you, even after they saw I was real?"

He nodded again. "Yeah, but not about talking to you when you were invisible. Mostly about being such a wimp that I needed a little girl to defend me." He shook his head in shame, and while Aelita expected him to say something degrading about himself, he said, "It's a shame, really, that they're such meatheads that they can't realize that one, you were older than them and two, little girls can do anything that they set their minds to."

Aelita laughed. She nudged him, but her playful fist simply went through him. "Smart kid," She said, and he smiled.

Jeremy looked at her. "I'm eleven now." He said, smiling proudly.

"I know that." Aelita raised an eyebrow at the sudden change of conversation.

"How old are you?"

"Well, _I'm_ thirteen. But I suppose I'm also ten at the moment."

"Do you ever go back and talk to yourself?"

"Well, not that I know of. I've never talked to myself in the past, but I can't say about the future." She looked away from him, wanting to avoid the conversation.

He noticed as much and looked back to the packet. Jeremy wasn't sure if he wanted to join or not. Aelita looked at the packet, and then at him. She said nothing, and while Jeremy continued to weigh the pros and cons of joining and not joining, a cup of water on his bedside table shook, then spilled. "Darn!" He said, placing the packet on the window seat. "I'm going to tear up this carpet and put in tile one of these days, believe me."

Aelita watched him put the cup on the bedside table, and he focused on the water that had spilled into the carpet. It seemed as if it would obey him at first, lifting slightly out of the carpet, but then he lost control and it popped like a bubble. She held back a laugh at how bad he was at it. He groaned, threw a towel he had stacked on the end of his bed on the spill and sat back on the window seat. Picking up the packet, he muttered, "That's the only reason I'd ever join in the first place…"

She knew what he was muttering about, and she knew that it wasn't entirely true. No one ever joined an organization that put 'Other' as an option for the gender just to do something they could do with a little bit of practice. "So, did I see Lyna leave a little bit ago?"

"Yeah. She and Gus are going to see a movie. Ulrich and Yumi are going to go see the same movie, and the four of them are going together, but not as a group of friends, you know?" Jeremy explained, and he added, "More as a double date, but they won't admit that to me."

"Well, if they won't admit it, how do you know?"

"I just know." Jeremy said, looking out the window. "She asked me about my position on the application because she won't join unless I do, and then she asked me if I wanted to go to the movie with them."

"I'll take it you said 'no,'"

"Yeah. I don't want to feel like a third wheel."

"I thought you said it was a double date."

"It is."

"Then wouldn't you be the fifth wheel?"

"Forget it."

"No, go on. Did you want to see the movie?"

"You sound like my therapist."

"You have a therapist?"

"Only because my dad heard me talking to _you_ once."

"Oh."

"Anyway, I didn't want to see the movie enough to go alone on Valentine's Day."

"Is there something wrong with going to the movies alone on Valentine's Day?"

Jeremy looked at Aelita, who looked at him innocently, waiting for the answer. "Do you really not know?" She shook her head, and he explained, "Valentine's Day is the most romantic day of the year. It's also the most annoying to us single people."

Aelita looked at him sympathetically, but then she smiled and said, "I'll go with you, if you want."

He laughed. "No offense, Aelita, but I don't think that I want to be stared at by people that think I'm alone and talking to myself. It'll bring me to an entirely new level of 'pathetic,' and besides, I don't think you'd enjoy it, anyway…"

She almost asked him why, and then she remembered she couldn't touch or hold anything. She hung her head a bit, and she twiddled her thumbs. Jeremy looked back to his application, and he sighed. "What do you think?" He asked her.

"About what?" She asked.

"What do you think about the application, Aelita? I can't figure it out." He clarified.

Aelita couldn't believe. Being from the future, she knew that he would join, but he just asked her what she thought. She knew that the Xanadu completely changed and ruined his life, almost to the point of _ending_ it, and they actually _had_ ended _her_ life. But could she tell him that? She thought about it for a moment.

Of course she could.

"In my opinion, Jeremy, I think that it's a really, _really_ bad idea." Aelita said.

Jeremy looked at her. "You think so?" When she nodded, he stood and said, "Well, I won't, then." He went to throw it out, but then he paused. "…I'm going… I'm going to go put this through the paper shredder." He opened his door and left his bedroom. Aelita stood to follow him, but when she did, the area around her went dark. The only thing she could see was a white blinking line.

It simply blinked on and off for a second. Then, it disappeared and white words appeared letter by letter, and when the phrase was complete, the line appeared and began to blink again.

_Restart requested. Confirm?_

The line blinked for a while, and then it began to blink below the first word. It added more words.

_Restart requested. Confirm?_

_Yes/No_

The words 'yes' and 'no' were in boxes. Aelita approached the words, and she held her hand out, hesitating. The darkness shook, and Aelita touched the word 'yes.' The box 'yes' was written appeared to be pushed into the darkness, and when she moved her hand, that appearance disappeared immediately. The words disappeared, and the line returned to its original position. It blinked for a moment before more words appeared letter by letter.

_Request confirmed. Restart will begin momentarily. 5…_

Aelita wondered what she'd just done.

_Request confirmed. Restart will begin momentarily. 5… 4…_

She had hit 'yes' without even thinking about what she was confirming.

_Request confirmed. Restart will begin momentarily. 5… 4… 3…_

What if she was restarting her visit because she'd changed the course of history?

_Request confirmed. Restart will begin momentarily. 5… 4… 3… 2…_

Quite frankly, Aelita had no idea what would happen next.

_Loading complete. Restart begins now._

The darkness around her vanished in a flash of white, and Aelita blocked her eyes.

* * *

Jeremy had watched the others go to hide the things he could potentially use to kill himself. They all had changed into black clothing—Jeremy a button-down black shirt, black dress pants and dress shoes—for mourning Aelita. Aelita was lying motionless in front of him, as they had not yet buried her, and he watched her. From his sleeve, he pulled Lyna's knife, and he pulled back his sleeve so he could cut himself with it. When he did so, the energy that had nearly electrocuted him shot out of the cut, and it manifested in front of him. Jeremy jumped up when the excess electricity disappeared and revealed the energy to look like himself when Laurelei had him addicted.

When it spoke, he could hear Aelita's voice underneath his own, and it almost made him cry. "Thank you. I was first absorbed by that awful woman, and then her father…" It shook its head, and then the energy swirled around it after it began to sing. When the energy vanished again, it looked like a thirteen-year-old girl made of pink energy. It turned and placed its hand on Aelita's head, and it was absorbed by the girl's corpse.

The elf boy stood there for a moment, blood dripping from the cut in his arm onto the carpet. He sighed with relief when he saw that Aelita had begun to breathe. When he did so, his head began to throb. Jeremy put his hand on it, and memories swirled around in his head. Laurelei? He had no idea who that was. The Xanadu Clan? Simply some strange club he'd refused to join. Aelita? A girl who only he could see. Odd? He'd never heard of Odd. Jeremy closed his eyes, and he didn't see Aelita vanish. He couldn't see Ulrich rush down the stairs and he couldn't hear him yell that Odd had vanished from right in front of him.

Neither of them saw the curved wall of white light engulf them.

The next thing Jeremy knew, he was standing in his sister's bedroom, listening as she talked about the new '_Subsonics_' music video. He leaned on his staff, which was about as tall as his shoulders, and he used it to help him control water.

It was also good for smacking people.

* * *

"I feel dead," Aelita murmured when she opened her eyes again. She looked around and saw her room, and she noticed nothing strange at first. She sat up and got out of bed. She walked to the window and pushed back the grey curtain, and it was then that she noticed something strange. She saw the bare trees and the iron gate. In the forest, she could see kids her age scribbling the pattern of the bark on the trees onto paper. Aelita let the curtain fall back into place, and she ducked away from the curtain and against the wall. Her heart was beating fast, and she put her hand against it to calm it down. Normally, when she had dreams of places that she once lived but no longer lived there, she couldn't touch or hold anything. But she could feel the wall and her heart, and she could hold the curtain. She couldn't pass through anything, and while Puck was there, he was in his doll form.

Aelita nearly always saw Puck's elf form when she was dreaming, regardless of whether or not the dream was him explaining something. She never saw his doll form. "This is real." Aelita muttered, and she realized what she'd restarted.

Because Jeremy had met Laurelei when he joined the Xanadu, her convincing of Jeremy not to join the Xanadu and then shredding the application, he'd never met Laurelei. Because he never met Laurelei, there was no need for Lyna and Gus to break into Hermitage and steal the antidote. Because they never broke in, they were never caught by her mother, and Jeremy was never bound to Hermitage.

She'd restarted their lives from the point just before the gang joined the Xanadu. She grabbed Puck from her bed, hoping to get the elf to explain what was happening.

"Come on, Puck! You've got to come out!" Aelita shook the doll violently. She thought of everything she knew to turn him into to an elf. "_Elf! Life! Magic! Live! Short! Old! Mister Puck! Spell! Memories!_ Come on!" She looked at the elf doll, and she wondered if he couldn't come back. She hadn't spoken to Puck in real life since he was shot by the owl man, but they had never met the owl man. Thinking for a moment, Aelita remembered a dream she had, and while she held the doll, she muttered, "_Ipakita ang iyong sarili…_"

The doll vibrated, and it grew in size. Soon, the doll in her hands had turned into the life-sized Puck, life-sized meaning 'the short elf that explained to Aelita what was happening.' He blinked his dark eyes, and he looked into Aelita's green ones. He yawned, and when he was done, he smiled sleepily. "Good morning, my lady Aelita." Puck said. She held the elf from his armpits, and his arms hung lazily over her hands.

Before she responded, she noticed she was no longer in her pink dress. She wore her winter pajamas, and it only reinforced the idea that she'd reset their lives. "Puck, what's going on? Why am I back at Hermitage?"

"Back? Where could you have gone? Your father never forgets to lock the door." Puck said, raising his eyebrows. Aelita realized that after he said it, and she dropped the elf without realizing it. She ran to the door and tried to turn the doorknob, but it wouldn't open. She tried for a few minutes before she gave up and slammed her head on the door. She turned and saw Puck rubbing his butt, and she realized she dropped him.

"I'm sorry," She apologized.

Puck barred his teeth because of the pain, and through his teeth, he said, "No, no, it's fine, really." Aelita placed him on the bed, and he straightened his hat. "Now, what do you mean?"

She took a deep breath. "What's today's date?" She asked instead of explaining.

"Today's date? December 5th," Puck said, hopping off the bed and standing in front of Aelita.

She blinked. She sat down on the bed. She sat still for a moment, but then she groaned and fell back onto the bed. "This is a nightmare." Aelita murmured, and she sat up to look at Puck. "Do you know Jeremy? The owner of the ferret?"

"Jeremy? Ferret? What are you talking about?" Puck asked.

As Aelita opened her mouth to explain, her door unlocked and her mother came in, shutting the door behind her. "Hi there, sweetheart. Guess what day it is?" Anthea said, pausing to look at Puck. "What is _that?_" She asked.

"Mister Puck. You know that." Aelita responded. "And it's December 5th."

Anthea blinked. "Yes. And Christmas—"

"Is in twenty days, or about three weeks." Aelita interrupted. "Mommy, do you remember Jeremy?" She asked.

"Who?" Anthea asked.

"_Jeremy,_" Aelita emphasized. "The elf boy who lived here for a while."

"Aelita, elves don't exist." Anthea raised an eyebrow.

Aelita picked up the elf next to her and held him out so her mother could look at him closer. "How could you say that? There's one right in front of you!"

Anthea pushed the elf away, causing Aelita's arms to follow. "Anyway, that's not what I came to talk about. I came to ask you what you wanted."

"Wanted for what?"

"_Christmas_, silly!"

Aelita's brain conceived an idea at that moment. She reached for an atlas, and she turned to the page that showed West Virginia. She skimmed the map for a moment, and when she found a city nearby where she and her mother had lived, she was able to find about where they'd lived. Pointing to it, she said, "I want to go here."

Anthea took the atlas from her. "There? Why there? There's nothing there."

"Wrong. Everything is there." Aelita corrected.

"I'm going to have to talk to your father…"

"…and if Daddy says 'no,' I'm going to buy the plane ticket online and climb out my bedroom window to get there." Aelita added to her mother's statement when Anthea paused.

Anthea simply stared at her daughter for a moment. "No guarantees," She said, picking up a pen and marking a thick 'x' on the spot Aelita pointed to. "But we'll think about it." Anthea added, marking the page with the pen, kissing her daughter's forehead and leaving her bedroom.

As Anthea did so, Aelita remembered something ten-year-old Jeremy had told her. 'Don't ever be too certain of the future. It can change instantly.' She laughed bitterly. "I know what you mean now. I should've thought about that before I hit any buttons. I'm just stupid, that's all." She hit her pillow and grabbed the book she had on her bedside table, but before she began to read, she thought about what had happened before she saw Jeremy contemplate joining the Xanadu. The false memories the Scyphozoa gave her pulsed through her mind, and she shuddered. "I wish I could just forget that. How awful. I can't believe I ever thought that Jeremy would do that to me…"

* * *

A/N: A Return to the Past! And a restart button! Aelita's powers were stored inside Jeremy after he stabbed Xana with ice. Then it entered Aelita's corpse, and she started to breathe again. She died because Laurelei absorbed her powers, but because it reentered her, life! Yah! The bad thing is that everything hit reset. But that's also a good thing! I probably could've held the restart off until another chapter, but I didn't want to get murdered. I'm not joking. Okay, maybe I am, but I don't want to get murdered anyway. So, pro—Jeremy never met Laurelei. Con—Jeremy never actually met Aelita. Pro—Puck's not dead. Con—No one remembers meeting.

Also, the character list on my profile is only going to show the main characters. Lots of the other go poof.

Okay, say it with me now: Aelita gets a redo!


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter Nineteen: Insanity is a Neutral Feeling_

Skimming through the book he'd found in the darkest part of the fantasy section of the public library, Jeremy looked at very realistic drawings of multiple creatures. There were diagrams, maps, descriptions and legends about how those creatures came to be, and then references to a place called Lyoko where, according to the author, most of those creatures resided. He paused when he reached a segment about elves, examining the pages closely. The author claimed to be an elf himself, so the section was massive, including traditional music and clothing. It showed how to make bows, arrows and quivers, which the author said most elves were skilled in using, and then showed the diversity of the types of elves. The author, at one point, mentioned an elf named Puck, often referred to by creatures of lower status as 'Lord Puck,' but the royal family and nobles often called him 'Mister Puck' or simply 'Puck.' Puck was an advisor to the Human King and Queen, but he was also a close friend to them as well as the Human Princess. He'd disappeared with the Human King after the murder of the Human Queen and Princess, and the author claimed that they lived on Earth, but it was simply a rumor and nothing more. Jeremy had never heard of anything so ridiculous, but he didn't say as much.

He turned the page and saw a picture—or more of, painting—of the royal family with Puck at their side. The area around them was green and lush, and a stone castle stood in the distance. The Human King and Queen sat side-by-side, and the Human Princess sat on the Queen's lap. Puck stood next to the Human King, and other creatures surrounded them as well—most of them smaller than what the author said was typical of the creatures, besides the white light that floated above the Princess' head, which seemed to be normal size and classified as a pixie—with wisdom obvious in their eyes. The Princess' eyes were focused on the white light, but the Queen held her hands gently on the hands of her daughter to hold them down. The caption under the picture identified everyone in it—Puck, elfin advisor, the Human King Franz, the Human Queen Anthea, so on and so forth—but Jeremy stopped when he saw a name that he recognized. "_Aelita?_" He said, wide-eyed.

Jeremy had known Aelita for many years—he'd never actually _met_ her, of course, but he had _known_ her—but she'd never mentioned being a princess. He flipped to the table of contents and followed the section titles until he found the one he was looking for—the one about the royal family. He flipped to the pages that corresponded, and he read first, the legend about how humans came to rule the creatures, and then about the attack launched by the vampires and how Aelita and her mother had been killed during it. Jeremy was horrified, and he remembered how Aelita would appear to him at different ages, yet never younger than thirteen. He'd never even seen her older than her mid-twenties, either, and while he doubted she'd been in her mid-twenties when she died, he couldn't help but assume that she'd been older than the three-year-old he'd seen painted when she died.

He searched for the section about vampires reluctantly, and when he found it, he saw that the author had been reluctant to write about them. It once again told the story of how vampires had killed the Human Queen and Princess, but then showed defining characteristics of vampires. It told about how the fangs were not always visible, and that other characteristics were either light or dark hair—never in-between—red eyes and pale skin. Then it spoke of a curse that a powerful wizard had placed on vampires after the death of the Human Queen and Princess. The curse kept vampires from walking during the day—which, at the time, was completely unheard of for vampires but not for other creatures—and kept them from entering houses without permission. The other creatures were blessed with the ability to walk about during the day—though many still preferred nighttime—but other weaknesses remained.

Jeremy closed the book when he realized how silly he was being. He barely believed he was an elf, anyway, and he'd allowed himself to get caught up in legends of lore. The legends had no scientific proof, and while not much of anything in Jeremy's life had scientific proof anymore, he refused to accept vampires like he refused to accept werewolves and poltergeists as creatures and Amaterasu as Yumi's mother—he thought it was completely possible that Yumi's mother could've been named in honor of the Japanese sun goddess, and he thought it was completely possible that her mother could have been an air elemental or a sylph, but gods and goddesses were simply something Jeremy couldn't believe until he could see it with his own eyes. He closed his eyes, placed his hands behind him and tilted his face towards the sky.

Jeremy's thoughts wandered to Aelita, and for a moment, he felt like a small child who'd just learned that Santa didn't exist but it was actually just their parents leaving toys wrapped in bright wrapping paper—he'd doubted Santa's existence ever since he was large enough to speak in complete sentences, and his parents confirmed his doubt when both he and Lyna were going through puberty and therefore their elven features were apparent, but they'd only done so because they were, in fact, a family of _actual_ elves and they didn't want their children building toys all day with aspirations of becoming one of Santa's elves—underneath the tree. She'd once told him they met October 2009, and it was December 2009 at that moment; two months after the rough date she'd given him. She'd told him numerous times he'd be strong and magic, but he could barely control his powers with his staff, and most of the water he used magic to control came back and smacked him in the head. He felt ridiculously lied to, not to mention humiliated that he'd spoken to her so often when the odds were stacked against her existence. Not only was he the only one besides Mort who could see her, but what she did and what she said were so surreal with time that it should've been obvious to him that she didn't exist.

He wondered why he'd even believed that she was real in the first place. His therapist had said that she was a subconscious manifestation of his desire to feel loved by a woman outside of his family, and depending on the situation where Aelita appeared at, she only changed in age because she fit what he wanted at that time at that age better than she would if she simply appeared as the same age every time or appeared about the same age as Jeremy. Which would've been a fine explanation if she hadn't become really real when he was ten, but even that could be explained by _Shark Boy and Lava Girl_—the entire movie was about dreams that can become real if you dream hard enough.

But though he knew that it was impossible for Aelita to exist, he couldn't help but wonder what his life would be like if she did. Jeremy opened his eyes, wiped snow from the lenses of his glasses, tucked the book into the pocket Lyna had sewn on the inside of his coat, grabbed his staff—which was next to him in the snow—and considered going back home for a moment. Instead, he crossed his arms behind his head and looked up at the sky for a few minutes, contemplating everything he remembered Aelita ever saying. He caught sight of a pink boot in the snow, and at first, he was confused because it seemed to be upside-down. He remembered that he was looking at it while lying in the snow, and when the person who the boot belonged to realized that Jeremy could see them, the boot was out of sight.

"Is anyone there?" Jeremy called out, and when he realized what he said, he muttered to himself, "Great question, Belpois. There's no chance the person spying on you will take that as a cue to run like hell." He stood up and approached the tree, and in the distance, he heard a woman shouting for someone. He paused, trying to identify the voice, and then he heard frantic footsteps, a yelp, and the sound of snow displacing as someone slid down it. Jeremy focused on what he'd been trying to do before he became distracted and rounded the tree. Whoever had been spying on him had disappeared. He looked around for a few seconds, and when he began for the path that led up to his house, he noticed something lying in the snow beneath the tree.

Jeremy walked over to it and examined it. It was a rag doll in the design of an elf, and he immediately noted that it resembled Puck, the elfin advisor of the royal family. The doll had been left in the snow, and at first, Jeremy was sure that it had been left as a clue. He forced his head away from the mystery novels and back into reality—or, whatever sort of reality was left in his life. The doll hadn't been left in a position where it would have been an obvious find, but more in a position that suggested whoever owned it had been frightened by Jeremy's sudden reaction and simply dropped it. It was an old doll, and when Jeremy looked at it closer, it seemed much older than the book he'd found—the book had been published in 1995 while the doll seemed to date back before the first World War almost.

He disregarded the age of the doll and concluded that it must've just belonged to a little girl who saw Jeremy's ears and became mesmerized by the fact that an elf was in front of her. When he called out to her, he assumed that she must've realized the danger of magical creatures, heard her mother calling her and ran. He sighed, and he examined the doll closely. "Poor kid. She's going to notice that you're missing and be really upset, huh?" Jeremy said, standing as he did so. He considered leaving the doll in the snow, but then he realized that the girl would never be able to find it if he did. There was a good chance that she was a tourist—a strange structure had appeared weeks earlier and had attracted many tourists since then—and she'd be gone before she could find it. She'd have a better chance of finding her doll again if Jeremy held onto it than if she had to waste days digging around in the snow until her nails scrapped up frozen dirt. As Jeremy turned to return home, he saw Lyna rush forward.

"Merry Christmas!" Lyna sang, and when Jeremy opened his mouth, she added, "Yes, I realize Christmas was yesterday. Shut up. I just came to tell you that Dad made chocolate pie."

He smiled in content. "Yum. _Pie._"

She laughed. "That was a simple thing for a smart guy like you to say."

"It's _pie!_ What else _is_ there to say?"

"I dunno, maybe something about—ooh, look, a dolly!" Lyna snatched the doll away from Jeremy suddenly, changing the course of their conversation. "It's so adorable…" She commented, brushing its dark hair from its eyes in a loving way. She looked at Jeremy with evil glinting in her eyes. "Let's torch it."

"No!" Jeremy protested, and he reached for it. Lyna pulled it closer to her heart so he couldn't. "It doesn't belong to us. I found it in the snow. I figured I'd hold onto it until I run into the owner."

Lyna looked at him skeptically. "Do you know the owner?" She asked.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "No, do you?" He answered her question with a question.

"No, so let's just torch it!"

"For the last time, _no!_"

"_Why?_"

"It's an _elf,_ you retard!"

"Retard is an offensive word!"

"Whatever! It's still an elf, like you and me!"

"And if it were a real elf, people would torch it anyway!"

"Maybe so, but we don't qualify!"

"We don't qualify as _what?_ People?"

"People, when used by most, means humans!"

"Not the answer to the question. Zero."

"_We don't qualify as humans!_"

"And…?"

"And therefore we don't torch the fucking doll!"

* * *

Aelita had waited for three weeks for her trip to West Virginia. When she received a 'yes' from her parents and was told when they were leaving, she'd counted the days and placed the total on a sticky note, and then each sticky note behind it went down one day. She'd packed a week early. But, when she finally got there, she realized she might as well have stayed home. They were in the right area, yes, but they never seemed to get close enough for comfort. But as her father drove through, taking every turn Aelita had programmed the GPS to tell him to take, she was confident that she'd find Jeremy and the others again.

She twiddled with her thumbs nervously, trying her best to hide her excitement. Puck sat limply in her lap, unable to move because the spell Aelita had used on him had worn off. It lasted for a few days, usually, and she'd made sure not to use it in the days before the plane ride so he could come with her. But after arriving, she hadn't had the time to recast it, and she wasn't entirely positive she could, anyway. Aelita spotted the necklace her mother had given her in the timeline she remembered sitting in-between her mother and father on the arm rest. Waldo stopped the car when the GPS spoke the words 'you have arrived.'

"Waldo, look…" Anthea pointed out her husband's window, her voice shaking slightly. Waldo did so, and behind his glasses, his eye widened. While her parents spoke softly to each other, Aelita looked out her window—she was sitting behind her father—and saw the Passage Tower. She smiled on the inside but resisted the urge to allow it to continue to the outside. She looked back to the arm rest and reached forward, grabbing it when her fingers were able to. She pulled her arm back faster than she had brought it forward, but not so fast as to attract her parent's attention. She slowly draped it around her neck and opened the car door, and she flinched as she waited for her parents to turn and tell her to shut the door.

They didn't.

Aelita held Puck tightly in her grip, and she stepped out of the car. She shut the door quietly, and when her parents didn't notice, then and _only_ then did she take off like a rocket towards the mountain. She tripped at one point, landing harshly in the snow. She ignored the pain that came from the fall and continued up the mountain. Aelita stopped when she saw the house that Jeremy and Lyna lived in, but then she looked up towards the cliff where she first learned she could fly and then had false memories put into her by the strange squid creature. They passed through her thoughts again, as they always did when she thought of even something remotely related to them, like nighttime, going to bed, Jeremy or even elves in general. She shook her head to regain control.

She turned to go up to the house, but then her eyes looked over to the cliff. Aelita wanted to see Jeremy—she wanted to see the others as well, but it was Jeremy who she really wanted to see—but something wanted her to go up towards the cliff instead. She considered that it was her wings that wanted it, but then she remembered that she never received the markings that allowed her to fly, and she sighed.

What crossed her mind after her wings was the fact that she'd changed everything. The man she hoped to see no longer existed. It was totally possible that he would be an awful lot like the Jeremy that Aelita knew, but not him in his entirety. There was no telling about how he would have changed, and while Aelita wanted to see someone who remembered her badly, she sighed once more when she realized that she had to fix history before anything else, no matter what.

It was figuring out _how_ to fix history that would be the problem. Her parents would more likely than not call her insane, tell her she was daydreaming and to take her medicine. Her friends would either call her insane and slam the door in her face or call for Jeremy and tell him that his 'invisible girlfriend' was at the door. Aelita suddenly remembered Amaterasu. She wasn't positive that Amaterasu could help, but Aelita knew that she could always ask. She assumed that it was the Japanese sun deity who called her to the cliff side and ran for it.

The trees that had been there on the day she learned to fly were still there. They hadn't yet been clear-cut by Laurelei, and as Aelita looked around, she saw Jeremy fold his arms behind his head and lie back into the snow. The false memories rushed through her head and scared her enough to hide behind a tree. Aelita realized she was being ridiculous.

"Is anyone there?" She heard Jeremy call out, and she glanced to him. Aelita followed his line of sight, saw that he could see her boot, and hid it. She heard Jeremy stand up and walk closer to the tree she hid behind, but when Anthea called out for Aelita, he paused. Aelita glanced to him again, and he seemed to be deep in thought, and she jumped at the chance and ran. She didn't know why she ran, but as she did so, she slipped again and slid down the mountain for several seconds before managing to stop herself and stand up.

Aelita ran the remainder of the way down the mountain. "There you are! You scared us!" Anthea said, running forward and hugging Aelita when she spotted her. "Don't run off like that!" She added, looking seriously into her daughter's eyes. "Waldo! Over here! I've found her!" She waved her husband over to them.

"Why would you do that?" Waldo asked sternly after hugging his daughter. Aelita looked down at her toes. He sighed, and added, "Just don't do it again."

Aelita nodded, and as her parents led her back to the car, she looked to her hands and saw that she no longer had Puck. "No! I've lost Mister Puck!" She exclaimed, looking around in vain. Aelita mentally retraced her steps and smacked her forehead when she realized what she'd done. "I must've dropped him up the mountain…"

Anthea looked at Aelita before stepping into the car. "It's okay, baby. He'll make his way back." She comforted her daughter. Aelita sighed when her mother added, "He always does."

* * *

"Where is your owner? _Talk!_" Jeremy shouted at the doll. The doll said nothing, but then again, neither did Lyna, Gus, Yumi or Ulrich, but all of the teens were disturbed. Jeremy lifted the doll and shook it violently. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way! Your choice!" He added, glaring at the elf doll as it waited for it to answer.

Lyna watched this for a while before she was pulled from the room into the hall. "Your brother's talking to himself again." Gus said, looking at her sternly after turning her around to face him.

She nodded. "I realize as much. This is almost creepier than his invisible girlfriend. But at least he's got an item that he can scream at instead of air that he can flirt with." Lyna shuddered. Gus nodded.

Yumi clutched her book tighter and said, "He hasn't done this since he was, what, twelve? It's creepy,"

"Yes, but at least he was calm when he was twelve." Ulrich commented. He looked to Lyna and asked, "Do you still have the number of that therapist?"

"No, but I have a better idea." Lyna said after thinking for a moment. She looked into Jeremy's bedroom and called him to come out into the hallway. When he did, she snatched the doll away.

Jeremy reached for it, but she held it out of his reach. "Lyna! Give it back! I'm not done interrogating it yet!" He said while he tried to reach it.

"You're fourteen, Jeremy." Lyna said, taking a step back to put more distance between him and the doll. "You're too old to play with dolls." She added, all too serious. "Gus," Lyna turned, held Jeremy back with her foot and passed the doll to the wizard.

Jeremy huffed. "Are you serious?" He shouted.

Lyna nodded. "Yes, I am. Shouting will get you nowhere." She patted Jeremy's head, and then opened a closet, removed a screwdriver and a bow of light bulbs. She opened the box and removed a light bulb, and then she put the box back. She held the light bulb out so Jeremy could see it, and then she smashed it on his head. He flinched, and after he began to rub his head, he opened one eye. Lyna showed him the now-broken light bulb and the screwdriver. "Fix it." She dictated*.

He said nothing at first, but then he took the screwdriver. "With this?" He asked.

"Yes."

"That's impossible!"

"You'll get the doll back when you're done."

Jeremy glared at his sister for a moment. He snatched the broken light bulb and said, "I hate you."

"I love you, too."

* * *

*I've been waiting for_ever _to use this scene. It dates way, way back to when Jeremy and Lyna actually could live amongst humans—I don't mean pre-puberty here, either—with a little tear-shaped gem that made them look human. It was called 'the Tears of Revolution' or something. I can't recall. (Long time ago. Like, three months.) The original scene was Lyna messing with Aelita's hair while she took a bubble bath and then Jeremy walking in because he heard Lyna. He asked Lyna what she was doing and her answer was 'messing with Aelita's hair.' He asked her why, and she said because it was fun, and he clarified that he meant why she was doing so while Aelita was taking a bubble bath, and her answer was the same except she added, 'you want to try?'

Well, obviously Aelita had some difficulty being comfortable with that, and she shouted 'no,' took a breath and then hid underwater. Lyna complained that Jeremy scared her away, and then told him to go do something manly. He asked what she meant, but she ignored him. So he went and tried to move furniture. Lyna showed up later and asked what the hell he thought he was doing, and when he told her, she told him that moving furniture wasn't manly but really just something women got their husbands to do when they got bored. It's after that encounter that Lyna gives him the broken light bulb and the screwdriver.

This really doesn't mean anything to you, but later on Jeremy produced the world's first metal light bulb. Aelita was impressed, but Lyna just sighed.


	20. Chapter 20

_Chapter Twenty: Downtown_

"Nicely done. It only took you, what, three hours?" Lyna complimented her brother, looking at the light bulb with a serious expression. She smirked as she said, "I can do it in three minutes." She looked to Gus, who nodded and passed her the doll. Lyna tossed the doll to Jeremy, after which he rolled his eyes and passed the doll back to Gus.

When Gus looked at him strangely, Jeremy asked, "Have any spells been used on that?"

Gus waited a moment before he responded. "You know, Einstein, the more time I spend with you, the more I think you're certifiably insane."

Jeremy sighed. "Humor me."

Gus rolled his eyes and pulled out his wand, holding it to the doll's head. There was a moment of silence as he did so, and when he pulled the wand away, he reported, "Yes, there have been. Your point is…?"

"What was the last spell?" Jeremy asked.

"Some mumbo-jumbo in a different language that I don't speak."

"You're a wizard!"

"I still don't see your point…"

"I thought you were supposed to be an expert at mumbo-jumbo in a different language!"

"No, I'm not that advanced."

"_Bullshit!_"

"Don't bullshit me! You're an _elf!_"

"And?"

"Aren't you supposed to be a mischievous faerie that teleports humans to a different world?"

There was a pause as Lyna and Jeremy looked at Gus. They then looked at each other, and then back to Gus. "We can't… _do…_ that." They said together.

Gus slumped back. "This is total bullshit." He muttered.

Jeremy placed his fingers on his forehead. "Look, can you just redo the last spell used on the doll?" He asked in annoyance.

The wizard looked at the elf sternly. "That could have positive or negative effects."

"Meaning…?" The elf provoked the wizard.

"_Meaning_ that if I redo certain spells, the result could either be the same as the first time the spell was cast or the exact opposite." Gus snapped. "We're talking evil overlords, or stuffing everywhere, or bats, or curses…"

"Look, I didn't ask for a list of the consequences. Just… just do it." Jeremy ordered, and Gus sighed.

"If this doll comes to life and starts to eat us, I don't want to hear you complaining…" He warned.

As Gus placed his wand on the doll to prepare to redo the spell last used on it, a shout from upstairs startled the teens. "_**Jeremy!**_"

Yumi sat cross-legged on her bed. She skimmed the pages of her book, examining the pages she knew and ignoring the ones she did not. S

* * *

he didn't know why she hadn't learned all of the pages yet, but she assumed that they weren't important. Yumi closed the book and opened to the front cover, and she read the note written by her mother. _'To my dearest Yumi—shall we be close forever through the pages of this book I leave you. May this be with you your life long. May it serve you well. I only hope that you look to the morning and remember that I am only a spell away. You will be in my heart, always. –Your mother, Amaterasu.' _The note was a reminder that Yumi could speak to her mother whenever she wished, but as the days ticked by like an endless clock, Yumi had not yet been able to contact Amaterasu. She'd tried most everything she could think of, even going to the sunniest spot she could find on the Summer Solstice, and at high noon five days earlier on the Winter Solstice. But she couldn't do it. Yumi sighed in frustration, and she heard a thump in the bathroom. She jumped up, and she ran to the door of the bathroom and swung it open. A girl with pale skin and pink hair had fallen roughly between the sink and the toilet. Yumi noticed the open window, and she held back a laugh. Helping the girl up, she asked, "Hey, kid, are you alright?"

The girl nodded, and when she saw Yumi, her face brightened. "_Yumi!_" She called out; hugging the Japanese demigoddess like someone would do to an old friend.

"Um…" Yumi paused for a moment, and she asked, "…do I know you?"

The girl backed up enough so she could look at Yumi. "Yes, you do. I'm Aelita, remember?" When the name resulted in a blank expression on Yumi's face, the girl sighed. "Oh, right. I almost forgot. Nevertheless, I'm fine."

Yumi nodded. "Uh… huh." She said, and a light clicked on in her head. "Oh, hold on! That sounds familiar! Where have I heard your name before?" Yumi thought for a moment, and then she remembered. "Right! Right, right, right! I remember now! You're Jeremy's invisible girlfriend, right? Damn, I never actually thought that you existed. I think he stopped believing, too."

Aelita cringed, and Yumi was confused for a moment. "Did you tell him you were coming? I think he's still here. Let me get him." She offered Aelita, turning to face the door. Aelita grabbed her wrist.

"No!" She called out, and Yumi faced her with confusion evident in her eyes. Aelita thought for a moment, and then grinned nervously. "I'm not really here to see Jeremy. I'm actually sort of scared of him, but the reason is stupid and never actually happened. I'm just here to fix history." Aelita explained, and she looked away into the distance, her eyes far away.

Yumi examined Aelita for a moment, and she asked, "What are you doing here, then?"

"Your mother, Amaterasu—I'm sure that she can help me. I screwed up, Yumi." Aelita responded in a sad tone. "I really screwed up."

"Oh." Yumi said, and she rubbed the back of her neck. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you scared of Jeremy? Just a few years ago, you two were, like, joined at the hip or something. He talked to you a lot."

"It's really nothing, Yumi…" Aelita laughed nervously, trying to avoid the conversation.

"If it were nothing, you wouldn't be scared, would you?"

"Maybe not, but I already said that it was stupid…"

"I don't care. Between Lyna and me, we can scare an apology out of him."

"That won't be necessary…"

"Why are you avoiding this?"

"I don't really want to talk about it…"

"Aelita, spit it out already!"

Aelita paused before she began. "I just have these freaky memories of him raping me—"

Yumi didn't wait for her to finish. "_**Jeremy!**_"

* * *

"I don't even want to hear it, Jeremy! She remembers you doing that to her!" Yumi ranted at the confused elf boy, who sat on the couch next to Lyna. Gus had taken his wand off of the doll, and Aelita stood behind Yumi, trying to convince her to be quiet and to listen to her. Ulrich leaned against a wall and watched the scene with surprising interest. He'd been outside and had heard Yumi scream for Jeremy, and she'd sounded angry, so he'd gone inside just for the conversation that was sure to follow because he was sure it would be interesting. He was right, but that was beside the point. Yumi continued; "Quite frankly, I didn't even know you were sexually active!"

"Hold up!" Lyna shouted, sitting up considerably. She looked to Jeremy and asked, "You're having sex? What kind of girl would want to have sex with _you?_"

Yumi adjusted her position so Lyna could see Aelita. "Her, but if you're getting down to technicalities, he raped her." Yumi explained what she thought was true, which caused Jeremy to stand up suddenly and start arguing with Yumi, and she argued back. Lyna looked between the two of them and then stood up. Ulrich saw her do so and followed.

Lyna took the phone off the wall and dialed three digits. "Who are you calling?" Ulrich asked, standing next to her. She looked at him.

"911," She said point-blankly, and she twirled the cord around her finger while waiting for the emergency phone line to answer. When it did, she obviously recognized the voice. "Hey there, Carrie! Yeah, it is me! I'd love to say it was a long time, too! No, I'm not calling to report myself, silly, who'd be stupid enough to do that? No, I'm calling to report my brother. No, Carrie, he hasn't been drinking or anything. Did I ever tell you about when Jeremy used to talk to himself and claim to be talking to a girl named Aelita? Yeah, his invisible girlfriend!

"So, anyway, apparently, Aelita actually does exist, and she showed up in Yumi's bathroom and Yumi managed to pry from Aelita that Jeremy raped her. No, he isn't right now, but can you just send the cops? Yeah, first name Aelita, last name—hold on, I'll ask." Lyna said, and she placed the receiver on her shoulder and called out, "Aelita, what's your last name?"

Aelita looked at her. "Schaffer, you knew that." She called back.

"Schaffer." Lyna said into the receiver. After a pause, she called back to Aelita, "Aelita, where do you live?"

Aelita opened her mouth to respond, but then thought for a moment. "I live in France. My parents and I are here on vacation." She finally decided on.

Lyna nodded. She said as much into the phone, and then asked her, "Where are you staying? Relatives? Hotel?"

"Hotel." Aelita responded.

"Which one? I need the address and the phone number." Lyna asked. Aelita gave them to her, and Lyna recited them into the phone. "What are your parents' names? Or, better yet, which room are they staying in?"

"Waldo and Anthea Schaffer," Aelita crossed her arms, thinking that her parents' names were at least something Lyna would remember, but she corrected herself in her head. She gave the elf girl the room number.

After Lyna gave Carrie the names and room number, she said, "Yeah, send the cops for my brother, please. And maybe a therapist for Aelita. But not the one Jeremy went to, because he was obviously a quack. I know, I wouldn't expect Jeremy to even be sexually active, either! He was such a goody-two-shoes. I mean, he called the cops on me, like, five times. Four, because that one time the house called the cops on me but he threw me under the bus as soon as they got there… oh, sure, I'd love to come to your party! When is that? Okay, good. You know that you can get a statement from us. Okay then, love you, sistah! Bye!" Lyna placed the phone on the hook and walked away with Ulrich staring at her with wide eyes. Lyna saw as much and admitted, "Yeah, I think I'm way too friendly with the 911 operators, too."

Ulrich nodded. "I mean, that one just invited you to a party…"

"Hey, it's not a party unless I'm there!" Lyna shrugged.

Lyna sat down next to where Jeremy had been sitting, and Ulrich sat next to Gus. Ulrich watched Jeremy and Yumi argue as Aelita tried to get them to be quiet long enough for her to explain, but his eyes were fixed on Yumi. Lyna watched the arguing trio for a moment, too, but when the flashing red and blue lights filled the living room and the clock clicked over to midnight, Lyna watched Gus as he redid the last spell performed on the rag doll Jeremy had found in the forest. Her eyes widened when a short elf hit the ground, and her eyes flashed up to her parents when her father—technically, he was Jeremy's father and her stepfather, but he and Lyna's mother had remarried—shouted, "What is all the fuss about in here? What are all of these flashing lights?"

Lyna's mother's eyes flashed to the elf girl. "Lyna, what did you do this time that the police had to be called again?" She asked over the sirens.

Lyna held up her hands in protest. "It wasn't me this time, I swear! Jeremy raped Aelita over there!" The elf girl pointed to the pink-haired human. The elfin adults' eyes flashed to Jeremy, and then to Aelita.

While both adults seemed to be angry and confused, Lyna's mother seemed to be more so. "Well, that wasn't very smart, now was it, Jeremy?" She shouted her question, hands on her hips. She paused, but when Jeremy opened his mouth to either continue his argument with Yumi or respond to his mother, she continued, "I cannot believe that you stoop so low, and to do that to _her!_ Do you know who she _is?_" Regardless of whether or not the elf boy knew, she shouted the answer—she probably would've shouted anyway, but the main reason she'd raised her voice was because of the sirens—at him. "This is the Human Princess of the world of creatures! You never should've done it to anyone, but doing that to her—do you have any idea what they'll do to you if they find out?"

As Aelita opened her mouth to try to explain to the elf's mother what she'd been trying to explain for a while, Jeremy's father placed a hand on Lyna's mother's shoulder and asked, "Is she really?" When the elf woman nodded, he added, "I had no idea that the myth was actually true…"

Ulrich watched silently as the scene passed by. He grew tired of it eventually, and he leaned back and closed his eyes. He shut out the world and was left alone with his thoughts. He couldn't actually sleep—he was dead, after all, and while the dead are eternally resting, sleep wasn't required. Ulrich would much rather be practicing his powers over earth—it wasn't often that he used it, but he was good at it—or martial arts, which he apparently learned before he died. When he opened his eyes, the only people left in the room were Aelita, Gus, a strange and small elf and himself. The clock read 12:44. "Where'd everyone go?" Ulrich asked, wishing that he'd actually watched the scene instead of shutting it out.

Gus looked at him. "The station." The wizard responded as the golem sat up.

Ulrich carefully rubbed his eye. If he did so carelessly, he could take off clay like a human or humanoid creature could peel off dead skin. "Why?"

"Were you dead for the past forty-four minutes?" Gus asked.

"Yes,"

Gus blinked. "Right. Sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck and slid his wand into his sleeve. "Yumi had been scolding Jeremy because Aelita had told her that he raped her but Yumi hadn't let her finish, so there was a bit of a misunderstanding… anyway, Lyna took Yumi's side and called 911, and they sorta-kinda-maybe arrested Jeremy…" Gus explained.

"Oh," Ulrich said, sitting up. "Then what are we still doing here? Shouldn't we get Aelita down to the station so she can explain?"

The short elf laughed as Ulrich said that. The more the golem looked at it, the more he came to realize that he had no idea who the elf was. "We were waiting for you. We assumed that you wouldn't appreciate it if we left you here alone."

* * *

Jeremy rubbed his temple, trying to understand. His mind was blurred and the lines would no longer be recognizable if someone could see it. He had no idea what was going on, and all he really understood was some girl who was obviously too young to be Aelita was pretending to be her and trying to get him sent to prison, or at least a juvenile detention center. Yumi had believed her, as had most everyone else, but Jeremy assumed that was because they had never seen Aelita and had no idea that she would most likely be thirteen or fourteen years old. The girl was too small to be either. The elf boy slammed his head against the metal table he'd been placed at.

The door opened, but he ignored it. A chair slid across the floor twice, and he assumed someone had simply pulled it out so they could sit. "I'm sorry," A girl's voice said, and Jeremy sat up enough to look at the girl with pink hair who had pretended to be Aelita. "Yumi didn't let me finish explaining."

"How do you know about Aelita?" Jeremy asked her, and she seemed surprised by his question.

"I _am_ Aelita," She said, placing a hand lightly over her heart in a gesture most commonly used for referring to one's self. Her surprised expression faded into one of relief. "But you have no idea how great it feels that you remember me." She sighed. Her eyes suddenly became lost in thought, and soon after she seemed scared, but she shook it off and placed a hand on her temple. "Why am I so scared of you when I know that what I see isn't true…?"

Jeremy ignored her question, positive in the fact that she was talking to herself. "Of course I remember you. How could I forget the girl who lied to me ever since I was little?" He asked her, placing his ankle on his knee with a skeptic look on his face. At first, she didn't seem to notice the negativity of the comment.

She didn't take her hand away from her forehead as she began, "I know it must sound crazy that I'm implying that you wouldn't—" She paused and looked up at him with surprise and hurt evident in her expression. "Lied to you? No, Jeremy, I never lied to you, and if I did, I'm sure I had a reason…"

""You can't even think of a reason, can you?" He interrogated her, placing his hands palm-down on the metal table. "You don't even exist! The fact that others can see you just proves my point! Sure, you look an awful lot like Aelita, but you're too small. How old are you?"

"Thirteen," She said, her eyes pained but her voice remaining strong. "But I don't understand—"

"You cannot possibly be thirteen!" The elf boy interrupted her. After he thought about it for a moment, he added, "See? Bam! Point proved."

"Jeremy, listen to me," The girl said, and she was once again interrupted by an elf, but it wasn't Jeremy.

A short elf with dark hair and a hat that was both pointy and floppy climbed up onto the metal table, obviously using the girl's chair as a ladder to do so. Jeremy noticed that the elf looked remarkably like the doll he'd found in the woods near the cliff side, but much more like a character from the book he'd found in the library. "No, you listen to _me,_" The elf said, stepping to the center of the table. "I know for a fact that my lady Aelita has never lied to you intentionally in the past thirteen years I've known her. That's all her life, thank you, and I know that she'd never hurt you like that. She's much too… loving for _creatures_ is how I would characterize her diplomatically, but the truth would be something much more along the lines of loving for _you. _And while I understand where you are coming from on the matter of her age in relation to her size, I can wholeheartedly assure you that my lady Aelita is most certainly thirteen years of age." The elf explained, gesturing wildly with his arms as he spoke. "Humans are usually much larger than this at thirteen years, but she's been ill since she was five years. Her parents responded in a way that prevented her from receiving natural ingredients needed for humans to grow to their natural proportions. You'd best believe me on that. Her parents are on their way here, and if you don't have your ducks all in a row by the time they arrive you'll find your head on the chopping block."

Jeremy, quite frankly, understood everything the smaller elf said, but none of it made much since to him.

The girl placed a hand on the smaller elf, as if to tell it to calm down. Upon doing so the elf began to shrink until it became doll-sized, of which after it became a doll. Jeremy blinked as the girl sighed heavily at the doll but didn't do anything other than that. "I'm sorry," She apologized with a smile. "Puck seems to have gotten a little carried away."

He blinked again. "Puck?" He asked, recognizing the name.

"Yes, Puck. I remember telling you about him once, but I don't think you ever got a chance to meet him before he died." The girl sighed and looked at the doll.

"You're lying to me again. That… that… _thing…_ it was completely alive." Jeremy pointed to the doll.

"Yes, I know, but I could've sworn he died after he was shot by the owl man in October—" She said, and while her thought seemed complete, Jeremy's response came so quickly it seemed to be interrupting.

"That's when you said that we would meet. But we didn't meet then, did we?" He said, and the girl opened her mouth to answer the question he meant to be rhetorical. He continued before she could respond. "It crushed me when we didn't, you know. I don't know what I did wrong, or even if I _did_ do something wrong, but I can't help as to feel like the victim of some cruel joke." His eyes seemed as hurt as hers when he added, "I wanted so badly to believe in you… but I can't. Not anymore."

"I'm so sorry! I…" She paused for a moment, and her eyes welled with tears. "…I can fix this."

"Why bother? I mean, what are you going to do? Are you going to admit to them that you were lying? They'll assume I threatened you to make you say that. Are you going to admit to them that you're an actress playing a figment of my imagination? No one in their right mind will believe you. What are you going to say? What are you going to do?"

"Hopefully, nothing." The girl paused for a moment, and then she looked at the doll and muttered something that Jeremy couldn't hear. The doll became an elf again, and she said to it, "Puck, make sure no one gets in or out, especially my parents!" Puck nodded, and the girl ran to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jeremy asked in annoyance.

"I have to talk to Amaterasu!" She called back, and she disappeared from view.

* * *

A/N: This took forever. I apologize. But I really love how Lyna is on a friendly level with Carrie the 911 Operator. *sigh.* A story to tell.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One: Event for the History Books

Yumi turned to the page in her book that had the spell for summoning Amaterasu. She placed it on a table and pointed to it. "This is the spell you would need, but I can't figure out how to use it." Yumi admitted to Aelita, who stood next to her. "I've tried to contact her ever since I got it, but I can't." She sighed, rubbing her elbows.

Aelita leaned over the book and studied the writing. She was unable to comprehend the text, but she assumed Yumi could. She didn't know how Yumi had contacted her mother in the past, but she knew that she had. Aelita held her necklace tightly in her fist, and as she considered it, she remembered how Amaterasu had used Yumi's telekinesis to trap the others in what had been Jeremy's bedroom at the time. She straightened her back to look at the demigoddess. "Can you use your telekinesis?" She asked.

"I… uh… yes, but how did you know about it?" Yumi stuttered before she responded.

Aelita waved her hand instead of answering the question. "It really isn't important right now. Can you just focus that on this page?" She said, pointing to the spell.

Yumi nodded, and she straightened her back before she did so. She held her hands to the sides of her temple, and she closed her eyes. A red aura surrounded her head, and her hair lifted up until it was nearly parallel with the laminate floor. The red aura surrounded the page as well, and while it first was ambient around the entire page, it slowly crept to the text. When it reached the edges of the writing, it filled the characters like water poured into a strangely shaped shallow glass. When all of the characters were filled with the red coloring, they began to glow. Yumi muttered something that Aelita noted sounded almost Japanese, but with some other language lying underneath.

The red aura that had made the text glow lifted from the page but kept it shape. Aelita was awed, and she narrowed her eyes to look at it in a way that wouldn't blind her. Yumi continued to mutter, but her eyes opened to reveal that they, too, were glowing with a red light. Aelita released her necklace, and it—like Yumi's hair—became nearly parallel with the floor. The energy inside of it seemed to dance. The characters moved closer together until they seemed to be just barely touching, and then they grew in size. When they seemed happy with the size they had grown to, they curved, and soon after, their methods were clear. The form they were creating looked like a woman.

Like a drop of blood in milk, the red light began to spread out, but it retained its womanly shape and took on hues like a sunrise. The light had become blinding, and the red light disappeared from Yumi's eyes. She stumbled, and the light became dimmer. The two teenage girls looked at where the light had come from, and while a yellow light still remained, the red light was gone. A woman stood in the yellow light. Her hair was shoulder length and black, and her face was painted white. Her upper lip was red while the bottom lip was white. Her cheeks were red, and she wore red eyeliner. Her kimono was orange and had a cherry blossom design sewn into it. Her obi was yellow and had a red string tied around it. She opened her eyes to reveal dark brown eyes that looked like Yumi's. She pushed a stray hair from her face had repositioned it in the bun on the back of her head. Aelita examined the bun, and she saw it was tied with a string of jade.

The woman smiled and held her arms open while looking at Yumi. "Hello, my daughter," She said, and Yumi paused before smiling as well and running forward.

"Mom," Yumi said as she embraced the woman. Aelita looked from Yumi to the woman—Amaterasu, she decided—and her eyes widened.

Aelita stepped forward. "Amaterasu, I need your help," She said, and Yumi broke the embrace she had with the Japanese sun goddess to stand next to Aelita.

Amaterasu nodded. "Yes, I know. I sensed something was wrong years ago. I'm surprised you've only decided to fix the problem now." The goddess said, and Aelita was speechless. Amaterasu smiled. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I reside in Lyoko, and whatever you change about the history of Earth changes nothing there." She said, walking forward. "In any case, how can I help you?"

Aelita shook her head to regain her senses. "I recently learned that I spent a lot of time with Jeremy's past self—"

"Yes, time travel. It's a bitch to think about, isn't it?" Amaterasu interrupted. "A gift from a pixie, I believe it was."

"That part doesn't really matter, but I suppose you're right. Anyway, at one point, I convinced him not to do something that he should have—"

"Oh, he could see you? How peculiar. That isn't supposed to happen. You're supposed to appear as a ghost and simply observe the situation to determine the criminal in court cases, but no one should be able to see you."

"Apparently, not many can. Only Jeremy. As I was saying, upon doing so, history was changed and now everything is out of whack. If I don't fix it, it'll be like this forever, and even though I like what happened this time around—or more of, what didn't happen—more than what happened in the timeline I remember, I think…" Aelita paused, and she looked down at the floor before continuing. "…I think I need history to unfold the way it had."

Amaterasu nodded. "Why do you want this?"

Aelita was confused by her question. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you want history to unfold the way it did? Jeremy almost died, if you recall, and the entire group had several attempts on their lives. Upon meeting you, your safety was placed on the line as well. In this history, their lives were never threatened, and you were never put in harm's way. If this history is so much safer, why would you want to change it?"

Aelita thought about it, and she looked at the floor again. "We never met in real life in this history, Jeremy and I. I still visited him in his past, but he's convinced I lied to him because of what I did." She walked over to the dark glass that allowed view of Jeremy and Puck, and she laughed bitterly. "It's selfish, really, what I want. I was never allowed out of my bedroom, and I never gained the sense to question why…"

"So you're convinced that the other timeline is better?" Amaterasu asked, making sure what Aelita said she wanted was actually what she wanted.

The human girl didn't respond for a long time. "Yes,"

Amaterasu sighed. "Aelita, to change history, do you remember what happened to you?"

"Yes. I was attacked by a squid-like monster that put these awful false memories of Jeremy raping me into my head." Aelita began, and she shot a glare at Yumi. "That was what I was trying to tell you before you interrupted me!" She snapped before looking back to Amaterasu. "They shouldn't have been very convincing, but they were, and I panicked when I saw him. I ran, and he chased after me. Apparently, Laurelei managed to absorb my Kaliwanagan as I did so, and because of that I, well… _died._"

"And after that?"

"I woke up in Jeremy's bedroom when he was eleven. It was Valentine's Day, and he was considering joining the Xanadu Clan. I convinced him not to, and when I did, he decided to put the application in the paper shredder. Darkness surrounded me, and it asked me if I wanted to confirm my request for a restart. When I did, a wall of light engulfed everything, and I woke up in my bedroom back at Hermitage." Aelita finished explaining. "You know how to fix it, don't you? Please tell me you can."

Amaterasu nodded. "May I see your necklace?" She asked Aelita, and the human girl took it from her neck and placed it in the goddess' expecting hand. She threw it onto the floor, and it cracked. The energy rose up from it, and formed into the girl she'd seen the first time she'd encountered her powers—much like herself, but with long, curly pink hair and livelier green eyes. The girl smiled at Amaterasu, and after a few seconds, Amaterasu looked at her daughter and asked, "Yumi, darling, will find Lyna and get her knife from her?"

Yumi nodded and ran from the room to find the elf girl, and Amaterasu walked from the room. Aelita followed, and the girl began to, but then she spotted Yumi's book. She picked it up and ran after Aelita. Amaterasu walked down the hallway towards the room where Jeremy sat, and suddenly, she stopped. The two pink-haired girls looked around the goddess to see why she stopped. Aelita's parents were standing in front of the door arguing with Puck, who blocked them from entering. Amaterasu stepped forward and placed a hand on Anthea's shoulder. The woman looked up at the goddess, and it took her only a moment to recognize her. "Amaterasu! I've missed you so much!" Anthea smiled, and the two embraced.

"As have I," Amaterasu said, and after a moment of silence, she added, "I apologize for this,"

"For what?" Anthea asked as Amaterasu stepped back. The goddess removed the string of jade from her hair and, with one finger, cut the string so it was not circular. The jade beads did not fall from the string, and when Amaterasu flicked it, the string became longer and more jade beads were created to fill the new space. She held one end of the string like a whip, and then spun around. As she went to crack the jade bead whip, there was a sudden flash of light. It faded as quickly as it arrived, and the whip was tied around Anthea and her husband.

Aelita ran forward and tapped Amaterasu's shoulder. "How'd you do that?" She asked.

"Do what?" Amaterasu seemed honestly confused.

"_That!_ That whip thing." Aelita clarified.

Amaterasu laughed. "Do not forget that I am a goddess, Aelita. This sort of thing comes naturally to me."

Aelita smiled, and she motioned for Puck to move. Yumi ran down the hallway with something in her hand, and when she reached the others, it was revealed to be Lyna's knife. The four females entered the room and closed the door, and the girl forged from Aelita's powers looked at Amaterasu. "Laurelei is not here, nor is her father. The past cannot be repeated." She said, sadness evident in her voice, which was a carbon copy of Aelita's.

"We'll just have to improvise." The goddess shrugged, and she placed her hands down on the metal table, shocking Jeremy, who had ignored their entrance. "I _exist,_" Amaterasu hissed.

"I see that now." Jeremy nodded, and the goddess smiled. She placed the knife in front of him. "What's going on?"

"History is about to repeat itself," Amaterasu explained, motioning for the girl to return to its energy manifestation. "Aelita, I want you to try to re-absorb your powers." She ordered, crossing her arms over her chest and placing her hands inside the sleeves of her kimono.

Aelita looked at her. "Why? If I try to, I'll electrocute myself."

"You want to fix this, right?"

"With my entire being, yes."

"To do so, you have to return to the moment that you messed with. The only way to do that is to repeat the scenario of which brought you to that moment. Normally, we would need Laurelei and Xana to do so because Laurelei absorbed your powers and then gave them to her father, but we'll make do."

"I've already tried returning to periods of time I already visited. It didn't work."

"You were alive when you tried to do that, Aelita. This time, you'll be dead. The dead do whatever they like."

Aelita paused. "The restart screen. I'll see that again, won't I?"

"Most likely."

"If I do, what do I say?"

"Excuse me?"

"It asked me to confirm my request for a restart. Do I confirm it?"

"Well, I don't know. Pay very close attention and I'm sure you'll figure it out on your own."

"One last thing."

"As long as we're here."

"Why are we reenacting this with Jeremy in here?"

"After you died and your powers were absorbed, Jeremy attacked Laurelei and Xana after Laurelei gave the powers to her father. Jeremy had attacked Laurelei first, but afterwards, he turned his attention to Xana and after that, he was able to absorb your powers. You don't have to worry, Aelita. We'll make sure everything is in order."

Aelita sighed and faced the Kaliwanagan. It offered its energy-like arms to her, and reluctantly, Aelita grabbed them. She felt the energy attempting to enter body, but as it did so, something else faded from her. She began to lose any grip on reality, and she tried not to scream. Eventually, the Kaliwanagan could feel that Aelita was dead, and it backed away. Everyone else could see that the human girl was dead before she even hit the floor.

"_**Aelita!**_" Jeremy shouted, standing up quickly and rushing to her side.

It left everyone else dreadfully confused. "Jeremy, you didn't even think she existed. Not only that, but I heard you tell the officer earlier that she lied to you ever since the day you met. Why are you upset?" Yumi asked, placing a hand on the elf boy's shoulder.

Jeremy stood up after placing Aelita gently on the floor. The Kaliwanagan noticed that he didn't seem nearly as upset as he had when it looked at him after he slit his wrist with his sister's knife. "Maybe so, but even if she did, I didn't want her to _die…_" Jeremy muttered. Yumi half-hugged the elf boy, and the room fell silent.

* * *

_Tuesday, February 14__th__, 2006_

"I'm going… I'm going to go put this through the paper shredder." Was the first thing Aelita heard when she regained consciousness. She watched as eleven-year-old Jeremy left his bedroom, and she jumped up to stop him. As she did so, the area around her went dark. The only thing see could see was a blinking white line. Aelita felt a horrible case of déjà vu overcome her as she watched it blink on and off for a moment before spelling out that all-too-familiar phrase.

_Restart requested. Confirm?_

Aelita realized that she had time to think about her next course of action. She heard and watched Jeremy leave his bedroom to put the application in the paper shredder. She'd come to the moment just before she restarted history.

It dawned her that a restart had been requested. She didn't want to confirm it this time around.

_Restart requested. Confirm?_

_Yes/No_

Aelita wasted no time in hitting 'no.'

The white line blinked on and off for a moment before spelling out something new.

_Request denied. Cancelation will begin momentarily. 5…_

Aelita smiled. She had full confidence in her decision.

_Request denied. Cancelation will begin momentarily. 5… 4…_

_Request denied. Cancelation will begin momentarily. 5… 4… 3…_

_Request denied. Cancelation will begin momentarily. 5… 4… 3… 2…_

_Loading complete. Cancelation begins now._

There was no bright wall of light as the darkness faded to reveal Jeremy's bedroom. Aelita thought for a moment that she'd wasted her one chance to fix everything. She sighed in relief when she saw time spin backwards. Jeremy appeared in the doorway for what seemed like only a split second before walking backwards to the place he'd been sitting in the windowsill. Aelita felt herself being forced down next to him, and suddenly, he heard his voice again. "What do you think?"

It was an unexpected question, and Aelita had forgotten what they'd been talking about. "About what?" She asked.

"What do you think about the application, Aelita? I can't figure it out." The younger Jeremy clarified.

Aelita suddenly remembered what they'd been talking about. She felt an impulse come on that told her to tell him not to join, but she still remembered what had come of that. "I think you should do it. I'll bet it'll be a great experience, and, besides, nothing is ever permanent." It pained her to tell him to do something that would come very close to ending his life. She felt like an awful person, but she also felt like she was doing what was right for her future.

For their future, she realized. "Nothing is ever set in stone…" She added with a small smile. "As you once told me, you can never be too certain about the future. It can change instantly…"

Jeremy smiled. "I remember that." He blushed profoundly when he added, "After which I told you were beautiful and managed to embarrass myself within an inch of my life…" He looked down to his application and was silent for a moment as he began to fill it out. "…I still think so, by the way. I'll always think so." He admitted quietly, and Aelita went to hug him, forgetting that she couldn't touch or hold anything. She fell through him, stopping herself before she passed through the window.

"Darn it. I forgot." Aelita muttered.

Jeremy looked down to where he heard her voice come from, and he couldn't stop himself from looking to the other side of him. He looked up and the ceiling and his blush darkened. He shook his head and said, "This is by far one of the most awkward things that's ever happened to us, and it doesn't help that I was forced to watch that _stupid video!_" He slammed his forehead on his application on the words 'forced to,' 'watch,' 'that,' 'stupid' and 'video.'

"You're going to give yourself a concussion." Aelita said, sitting up. "And, which stupid video are we talking about?"

"A few weeks before Lyna and I had to drop out, the fifth grade had to watch a video on the human body. Little did we know that it also covered the basics of reproduction*, and for the rest of the week nobody could look at the opposite gender." Jeremy explained without looking at Aelita. He placed his hand on his temple and added, "For the rest of the _month_ I was teased by those bullies. They kept saying that I must've been having sex with myself because _you_ were both invisible and my girlfriend…" Jeremy paused for a moment, and then he looked at Aelita. "None of which are really true."

"Oh." Aelita said, and she added, "Which reminds me, I've got to focus on getting these memories out of my head before it's too late to do anything about them…" She noticed that she was beginning to fade, and she smiled at Jeremy. "I've got to go now. I'll see you later then, okay?"

Jeremy waved good-bye to Aelita as she faded. "Bye, Aelita…"

* * *

Aelita opened her eyes to darkness. She could only barely see Puck, who stood next to her. "Puck, where am I?" She asked the elf.

"A small gap in the time/space continuum." Puck responded without missing a beat. "You started so much later in that moment that there is still time before you can be returned to where you came. The time/space continuum is currently searching for a temporary moment to place you in." The elf was silent for a moment as a white light appeared and drew closer. "Ah, here we are."

* * *

_Tuesday, September 11__th__, 2001_

Aelita found herself standing in the woods in her autumn pajamas. She noticed that the trees thinned out considerably in the near distance, and she ran forward. She looked over the place she found in doing so, and she saw a playground. She saw a park bench where younger versions of Jeremy and Lyna's parents sat close together. Aelita saw that the woman hid her ears under an orange hat. It looked an awful lot like Kya's hat, but it had a child-like quality to it and it revealed the part of her hair. The man looked a lot like Jeremy's father, and he wore a bandana that resembled the French flag. The woman leaned on the man, and his arm was wrapped around her. She suddenly realized that they were the elves' parents, but when she looked at Kya's left hand, there was no ring on her finger. "They're not married yet," Aelita noted.

She looked around the playground again, and she spotted three small children on the swing set. The first was Japanese, and she wore a black polo, black-and-grey striped arm warmers, black-and-grey pleated skirt, black-and-grey striped socks and black sneakers. Her black hair was in pigtails, and while the outfit was different than she would normally wear, Aelita saw that the girl was a younger version of Yumi. The second was black, and his hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a white hair tie. He wore a white tee-shirt, baggy shorts with many pockets and white sneakers without socks. Gus, she realized. The third wore a tee-shirt with long blue-and-red striped sleeves, jeans and red high tops. Her skin was the color of caramel and her hair and eyes just barely darker than that. Lyna.

The three children were swinging back and forth, and soon, Lyna and Gus were swinging at the same height and speed so their swings were always level. "Hey, Gus, we're _married!_" Lyna teased, and when Gus realized she was right, he jumped off the swing. Lyna jumped off to follow him, and when Gus saw that she had, he ran. Lyna chased after him, and Yumi stopped her swing to follow them. Aelita saw that Gus was running in her direction, and she flinched. Gus ran through her, as did Lyna and Yumi.

Aelita watched them for a moment, and then she entered the playground. She scanned the playground, and then a little voice called out to her. "Are you lost?" She turned and saw a little blond boy with dark blue eyes and a tee-shirt that looked like the French flag. He wore black-rimmed glasses and he had a book in his hands. Aelita smiled when she saw that it was Jeremy.

"No, I'm not lost, Jeremy." Aelita smiled and approached him. "But I appreciate the offer."

She was surprised when he wore a look of confusion. "How do you know my name?" He asked, recoiling a bit. When Aelita took a step closer to him, Jeremy jumped up and tried to run, but he tripped over his shoelaces. "Who are you?"

Aelita laughed, and she covered her mouth. "I'd help you up, but I can't touch or hold anything." She said with a smile, not moving her hand from her lips. "My name is Aelita." She paused for a moment, thinking, and then she added, "You'll be seeing a lot of me in the near future."

"Oh," Jeremy said, standing up. He looked at Aelita for a long time.

After a while, it became uncomfortable. "Uh, you're staring at me," Aelita said.

"Oh, I was staring?" Jeremy asked in confusion. She nodded, and he rubbed the back of his head nervously. He said nothing for a while, but when he did, he was smiling. "My dad's an elf,"

Aelita almost said that she knew, but thought better about it. She placed her hands on her knees. "Is he really?"

"Yup. And his girlfriend is an elf, too." Jeremy said, and he was tackled by Lyna.

Lyna sat on him. It sparked a memory in Aelita—a false memory, of course, but it was still called up—but she shook it off. "Who ya talking to?" Lyna asked.

"I… uh, Lyna, this is Aelita," Jeremy introduced Lyna to Aelita, but instead of looking at her, Lyna looked at her future brother in confusion.

"_Yumi!_" Lyna shouted over her shoulder. Aelita realized that Lyna could not yet speak or understand French.

"He introduced you to someone named Aelita," Yumi shouted from a place out of sight.

Lyna looked in Aelita's general direction, but seemed to look straight through her. "Uh, hi, Aelita, um, I, uh, like your antlers?"

"Aelita doesn't have antlers." Jeremy said point-blankly.

"_Yumi!_" Lyna shouted over her shoulder.

"Aelita doesn't have antlers." Yumi translated.

Aelita smiled at the innocent conversation that unfolded from Jeremy, Lyna and Yumi. She heard a man shout something. "Get your children back inside your house!" The man shouted. Aelita turned and saw a black man talking to the elves' parents. "Take Yumi home! Where's my son?"

Kya laughed. "What's wrong, Austin?" She pointed to the forest. "Gus is in the woods. See? He's fine."

The man—Austin, apparently—was frantic. "Gus! We're going home!" He got closer to the elves and said, "The Twin Towers have been attacked by al-Qaeda!" The elves jumped at this and they separated. Kya ran into the woods with Austin, and then Jeremy's father ran to Lyna and Jeremy. He ran through Aelita and told Lyna to get off of Jeremy because they were leaving.

"Why are we leaving, Mike?" Lyna asked, but she did as she asked. Kya exited the woods and shouted for someone named 'Michael**.'

"Something's burning, Lyn-Lyn," Jeremy's father—Michael—said, and he stood. "I wish I'd known about it, too… could've kept a lot of people from getting hurt, and then I wouldn't have agreed to have come to New York City this week, too…"

The small information supplied by Michael wasn't satisfying Lyna. "What's burning?" She demanded.

"The Twin Towers," Michael said, and while Lyna didn't know what he meant, she looked up and saw the smoke in the not-so-distant sky.

Jeremy apparently knew what his father was talking about, and he stood up. "Dad, what about Aelita?" He asked, and Aelita suppressed a smile that would have risen had the situation not been so obviously dire. "We can't just leave her here!"

Michael looked around, but saw nothing. "Who are you talking about?" He asked his son.

Aelita looked at Jeremy and said, "Go on, Jeremy, just go with your dad. I'm going to be fine, trust me, okay?"

The young boy looked at her for a long time, and then nodded. He followed his dad, and Aelita watched them leave. Jeremy turned and waved, and she waved back as she began to vanish.

* * *

*This moment happened to me, actually. To make matters worse, the movie I had to watch was made by a tampon company. Needless to say, all the girls got little sample feminine products in a brown paper bag. Ugh. We just call the movie '_the_ movie' now.

* * *

**Thanks to warhog567, who told me Jeremy's dad's name. Oh, man, any longer and I would've been so embarrassed… also, thanks to anyone else who told me, I just saw warhog567's first. (P.S: Be proud you're rewatching episodes. I'm at the mercy of Kabillion.)

* * *

A/N: I hope I didn't upset anyone by the mention of 9/11. If I did, I apologize from the deepest part of my heart. May we remember those lost. - Seriously deep right there.


	22. Chapter 22

_Chapter Twenty-Two: My Life as Intended_

"Aelita, _run!_"

"What?" Aelita blinked, her head spinning. She could see Ligaya—a welcome sight after not seeing it for three weeks—and Jeremy, and for a moment, she panicked. She calmed herself, and she looked forward at the squid-like beast that neared her. She recoiled, and her face became stern as she engaged herself in thought.

That monster had given her the memories that haunted her. Aelita assumed that if it could give them to her, it could take them away just as quickly.

Or it could make them worse. Aelita was willing to take the chance.

Aelita turned and looked at Jeremy. She removed her necklace and held it by the string the gem was hanging by. She held it out to the elf boy. "Will you hold this for me? I don't want it to get broken again." Aelita asked, and after giving her a confused look, Jeremy nodded and took it. She smiled, and then ran towards the squid.

Jeremy panicked. "Aelita, when I said 'run,' I meant _away!_" He clarified, and when he ran forward to stop her, he could only watch as the squid wrapped its tentacles around his human friend. Ligaya buzzed forward, and it pulled on Aelita's hair to try and free her. Jeremy brought snow forward to try to slice the tentacles, but it was as if something was protecting them.

As for Aelita, she would have smiled if she could. The squid eventually released her, and she fell limply into the snow. Jeremy and Ligaya gathered around her, and when she opened her eyes, she smiled. She grabbed Jeremy around his neck in a loving embrace, and she sighed, "Jeremy! I love you so much! Don't ever change!" Jeremy blushed profoundly, but he smiled. Aelita placed her hands on his shoulder and looked at him for a while. "You know, I think that thing grabbed me with the intention of making me scared of _you,_ but I can't remember why… had something to do with you raping me… but that's crazy talk. You respect me too much to poke my belly button for five seconds." She smiled again, and she stood. Jeremy looked at her for a long time, but said nothing.

"Um… okay then." Jeremy said, standing. Ligaya laughed and sat of Aelita's shoulder.

"Oh, while I've got you here, who's al-Qaeda?" Aelita asked, one eyebrow raised in an amusing expression of confusion.

He paused. "Uh, _terrorists._ Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I just got back from 9/11 and I heard Gus' dad say something about them, is all," Aelita shrugged. She looked up and pointed. "Hey, look, they're up there."

"Who, al-Qaeda?" Jeremy asked, looking up. He saw the others sitting in cages made of darkness. "Oh, no, just some idiots." He thought for a moment and then rubbed the back of his neck. "Y'know, I think some people might have found that redundant…"

Aelita laughed, but her face became serious very quickly. "Can you get me Lyna's knife? I'll cut the others down."

Jeremy reached into his sleeve and pulled out his sister's knife. Aelita smiled, took it from him and ran to one of the ropes that held the cages above the ground. He looked to Laurelei, who seemed very surprised, and he ran towards her. Laurelei turned to look at him, and her face became smug. "You've surprised me. All this time I thought that I was letting you believe that you were one step ahead when you really weren't, but it seems that the opposite is true. I'm very impressed." Laurelei complimented, clapping.

"Of course. I'm not stupid." Jeremy said, lifting up snow. Laurelei widened her stance, motioned for the squid to leave and then allowed darkness to surround her hands like an aura. She launched them in his direction, one of which he dodged and the other of which he split in half. He created a wall of snow— which he then froze—underneath her feet. She jumped off of it, and while she was in midair, she placed two fingers on a white bracelet. It blinked, and Laurelei landed in the snow gracefully. She looked up and Jeremy, smirked, and allowed the fight to continue.

* * *

"Sissi, come down from there! Someone will see you!" Taelia shouted, and then she added, "You'll make us lose our element of surprise!"

Sissi looked down to the elf and stuck out her tongue. She spun around in the sky, leaving a small trail of light as she did so. Taelia huffed, and Emily walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Emily looked over to Hervé, who ran his fingers through his dark hair, lost in thought. "You okay over there, Hervé?"

"Do you ever wonder if this is the right thing to do?" Hervé asked her, and Emily walked over to him. "I mean, this entire thing is very sketchy. Their base looks exactly like the one we broke out of, and then their uniforms…" Hervé looked down to his uniform—his was made of a light grey stretchy material with a light blue target-like design on the left side paired with shiny black boots with the legs of his uniform tucked into them—and pulled on the fabric over his heart. When he released it, it made a snapping noise.

Emily sighed and walked over to him. "What choice do we have? Besides, we've only been asked to do one thing, and Laurelei said that she'll reward us regardless if we're required to do it or not." Emily wore a uniform as well, but it was different—the light grey material used on Hervé's uniform was only used on her short shorts and her shirt, but she also wore what resembled an oversized loincloth of the same color but different material, a light grey cropped jacket and black shiny boots like Hervé's, only hers reached her knees while Hervé's only reached a little above his ankles—and her long black hair was frozen at the ends. She pushed up her glasses. The quartet had travelled as far as they could from the underground base that changed their humanity, but when they met Laurelei, she offered them training of their powers until a deal could be made to return them to humanity.

"I'm just concerned about the army they've got lined up in New York City. They wear darker uniforms that otherwise look exactly like ours, and why would they need an army, anyway?" Hervé questioned.

"What if an army of magical creatures start terrorizing NYC? Fight fire with fire, I always say," Taelia shouted over to the other two, and then continued to argue with Sissi about coming back down to Earth. Sissi and Taelia wore uniforms identical to Emily's, but Taelia also wore a quiver over her shoulder. A bow was in her right hand, and Emily could see the strawberry red shaft of her arrows even from a distance. Taelia had no clear grip on what her elemental power was, so she'd worked to refine her ability to shoot an arrow. Emily traced the light blue target design—where as it was located on the left side of Hervé's shirt, the female uniform had the design on the left side of the cropped jacket—subconsciously, and suddenly, she felt something buzz on her wrist. She, like the other, stopped what they were doing to look at their wrists.

Sissi sighed. "I thought that we weren't supposed to _do_ anything!"

Taelia gripped Sissi's dark hair when she landed on the snow. "We're Plan B, you dumbass! Plan A failed!" She pushed a strawberry red strand of hair from her eyes and ran forward. "So, what are we supposed to do again?"

Emily laughed, but Hervé only sighed. "There's some human girl with pink hair that's being held hostage by a group of rogue creatures that we have to rescue, no matter what. Apparently, they've convinced her that _we're_ the bad guys, even though they constantly ruin our plans to make Earth a peaceful and strife-free paradise like it was before Adam and Eve." He clarified, and then the elf nodded.

"Well, then," Taelia said, reaching over her shoulder and grabbing an arrow by its shaft. "Let's go save her, shall we?"

* * *

Aelita sawed at the rope, and she sighed from exhaustion, realizing how difficult it was to cut. It seemed thin enough, but it wasn't thin at all. Ligaya flew off her shoulder and began to chew at the rope. Aelita laughed, gently grabbed the pixie and placed it back on her shoulder so she could continue to saw at the rope without hurting it. There was a sudden burst of wind that was focused on her hand, and it knocked the knife from it. Aelita looked around, and at first, she saw nothing. Then she spotted a dark-haired girl who was glowing soft tones of pink, yellow, blue and green in the sky. The girl dove down and flew past Aelita, the light she gave off temporarily confusing her. Aelita covered her eyes, and she looked to her shoulder for Ligaya, and she realized that the pixie was gone. "Ligaya?" Aelita asked, and then she looked around. An arrow came from out of nowhere and caught Aelita's hood, trapping her next to the tree she stood in front of. She reached for it to pull it out, and then another arrow caught her sleeve. The position kept Aelita from moving her free arm to pull either of the arrows out.

She noticed Lyna's knife in the snow, and she tried to reach it with her foot. It was just barely out of reach.

Not that, she realized, she would know how to use it to free herself if she could get it.

"Don't you dare fire another arrow! We're trying to rescue her, not play how-many-knifes-can-I-throw-before-impaling-the-human-girl!" A feminine voice ordered, and the glowing girl landing in the snow.

"Okay, who's got the rope?" The glowing girl called out, and Aelita could then tell it wasn't her who ordered the halting of arrows. A pale boy with oily black hair approached her with the rope, and she took it from him. Two more people approached—one was an elf with strawberry red hair, the other wearing glasses with frozen black hair—and the elf girl approached her and took the arrows. She placed them in her quiver before moving so the glowing girl could attempt to tie Aelita up with the rope. Aelita muttered something and summoned her wings, and she took off for the skies. The glowing girl cursed and followed her, and she was quite capable of copying Aelita's every turn.

Aelita spun to dodge every blast of air that was launched at her, and she noticed that it glowed. Eventually one managed to hit her, and while it didn't knock her out of the sky, it stalled her enough for the glowing girl to wrap the rope around her and fly back to the other. Two of her four attackers held her shoulders while the other two tied the rope. Aelita fought furiously, wracking her shoulders and kicking those who dared walk directly in front or behind her. The glowing girl stuffed something in a small bag she wore around her hips, and after doing so, something obviously struggled to free itself. Aelita opened her mouth to say something, but the girl with frozen hair tied something wet around her mouth. "Shh. We're here to help you." She cooed, and Aelita realized that she was the one who shouted for the arrows to stop.

Aelita tried to say, 'You claim to be helping me and yet you tie me up and cover my mouth so I can't talk,' but it came out, "Bu came oo ee elfin mm an uhyuh bu eye mm uf an cohber mie mouf doe aye champ dalk*!" Her four attackers looked at each other, and they all shrugged together. Aelita sighed, and then tried to run. The boy sighed and grabbed the ropes that kept her bound, and the elf grabbed her ankles. They lifted her, and they both let out a surprised 'oh' when they realized how light she was. They ran, and Aelita tried to call for help, but when she remembered no one would understand what she was saying if they heard her, she gave up and resorted to screaming like a banshee. It was still muffled, but it was louder and someone would realize immediately that she needed help if they heard her. Her attackers sighed, but when they spotted Gus' van, the girl with frozen hair clasped her hand together, and her eyes sparkled.

* * *

After looking around quickly, Laurelei noticed that Aelita was nowhere to be seen. She smirked, and she revealed her bat wings. As she prepared to take off, something in Jeremy's hand caught her attention. It was pink, and energy swirled inside of it. She realized that the only reason he had it was because Aelita had given it to him so it wouldn't break, but then she had never asked for it back. After launching and dodging several more attacks, Laurelei discreetly reached out and snatched the necklace from Jeremy's hand. She hid it immediately and waved, soaring up into the sky, leaving Jeremy alone on the ground below.

* * *

"Has anyone seen Aelita?" Jeremy asked while helping the others down from the traps that held them. "She said that she was going to get you down, but I can't find her."

Lyna stretched, and she spotted her knife in the snow. She picked it up and asked, "How'd this get down here?"

Jeremy looked at it. "Aelita was going to use it to get you down. Where'd you find it?"

"In the snow. She must've seen something in the woods that scared her and dropped it before she ran. Ligaya's nowhere to be found, too, so it must've followed Aelita home." Lyna theorized, holding her knife to the sky and then placing it in its holster on her hip.

"What are you talking about? What could have possibly scared her so much that she ran home?" Jeremy poked a hole in Lyna's theory as he helped Yumi from her cage.

"There are plenty of things!" Lyna smiled, helping Ulrich out of his cage. Yumi went over to help Odd. "Ogres—which, as you recall, are actually some of the nicest people I've ever met—giants, banshees, werewolves, vampires, waldgeists, etcetera…" She listed on her fingers.

Jeremy sighed. "Lions and tigers and bears…" He mocked her.

"Oh, my!" She joked. He sighed again.

"Still, it's not like her to run away. She'd be more likely to approach it and give it a hug than run." Jeremy walked over to Gus and helped him.

"I'm telling you, she just went home! We'll see her again tomorrow, of that I'm sure." Lyna did a head count, and then walked in the direction where Gus had parked his van. Jeremy sighed, but the rest of the gang followed her.

When Gus looked up to where he parked his van, he shouted, "Where's my van?" He ran up to where it had been and traced the tire tracks down the mountain. They were headed north. "The person who stole my baby's going that way!" He shouted, pointing north and running to follow them. Odd grabbed his hood and pulled him up to the house where they called base.

"We're never going to catch them on foot, Gus," Odd said, and Jeremy paused to look north.

He wanted to go north even more than Gus did, but he simply sighed and followed his sister.

* * *

*I hope you laughed at this. To get it right, I had to bite a wet washcloth and say each word several times. I gagged once. It was gross.

* * *

A/N: Ah; kidnapping. The amusement of the masses. Did you think that the itty-bitty little section about those four former Kadic students was in the last book just for the pure enjoyment of just being there? Well, if you did, you were wrong! I actually wanted to put them back in this story sooner, but… oh, well. Laurelei's at it again. What does she have planned? The world may never know!

Well, the world _will_ know soon. I already know. Do _you? _No, I think not! :)


	23. Chapter 23

_Chapter Twenty-Three: New York Underground_

Jeremy was typing on his laptop, but he paused. He looked up at the others, each of them doing their own thing, and then he looked back to his computer. "I'm still worried about Aelita," He admitted, grabbing the attention of the others. "Wouldn't she have said something by now?"

Lyna sighed. "Jeremy, Aelita's a big girl now. We aren't her babysitters."

"I know we aren't, but what if something bad happened to her?" Jeremy was beginning to sound paranoid.

Odd flicked his dog, Kiwi, in the nose. He'd brought it from France, and like his owner, he slept an awful lot. "Her powers are pretty much working again, from what she's told me. If she's in trouble she can get herself out of it pretty easily."

Jeremy looked up at Odd, and then back to his computer. "Nevertheless…"

"Maybe she ran because she thought that you were smothering her," Odd joked, which was responded to by a throw pillow being chucked at his head. "Yeah, I deserved that one."

Jeremy kept the position he'd come across when he threw the pillow for a second before turning back to his laptop. "So, is she better? I didn't hear her say anything about being cured."

"I don't think it's that she's cured but that she's come back in contact with her powers." Odd said, picking up Kiwi and laughing as the small dog licked his face. "I think it has something to do with her necklace."

"_Her necklace!_" Jeremy exclaimed before looking in his sleeves and then opening the coat closet. "I've got to give that back to her…" He dug around in his coat pockets before turning out the pockets on his pants. When it was nowhere to be found, the elf boy leaned his head on the door and thought for a moment, reviewing what had happened after the moment Aelita gave him her necklace. After a minute, he banged his head on the door and muttered, "What the hell did I do with it…?"

He was silent for a long time, and then he closed his eyes. He was becoming as paranoid as he sounded, and he opened his eyes a little. So quiet it was almost silent, Jeremy asked the room, "Aelita, where are you?"

* * *

"_Help! I'm being kidnapped by four teenagers driving underage in a stolen vehicle!_" Aelita shouted at the top of her lungs after the elf with strawberry red hair removed her gag. She was still tied up, but the elf had removed her gag and then shushed her.

She placed one finger on Aelita's lips. "Don't bring our other crimes into this. Besides, if the others hear you, I'll catch hell for removing your gag." The elf said, and she warily removed her finger. Aelita reluctantly remained quiet. The elf smiled. "Good girl. Are you alright? You put up an awful fight earlier."

Aelita eyed the elf sternly, and she spoke as calmly as she could manage. "Wouldn't you, if you were being kidnapped by four people you'd never met?"

The elf raised her hands as a sign of defense. "Take it easy, pinkie. We're not going to hurt you, and we're not kidnapping you; in fact, we're your _rescue party._" The elf clarified. She glanced at her wrist, which had a bracelet on it. "You're name's Aelita, right?"

The human girl ignored her. "_Rescue_ party?" She shouted, her question completely rhetorical. "I didn't need rescuing!"

"Yes, you did!"

"From who?"

"The villains holding you hostage!"

"The villains holding me…?" Aelita thought for a moment. "_You're_ the villains holding me hostage! Are you rescuing me from _yourselves?_"

"No! Those six creatures you're always with…"

"Those are my _friends!_ And they're _heroes!_"

"Your 'friends' _tricked_ you into thinking they were heroes. I know that they seem like cool people, but they really _are_ villains!"

Aelita looked at the elf for a very long time. "Are you clinically insane?"

"No, I—" The elf paused and looked off into the distance. "I'm going to have to finish reprogramming you later." She joked, but her face became serious once again quickly. "Here come the others." The elf tied the gag around Aelita's mouth again quickly, after much protest. The elf then took a relaxed position and waved as the glowing girl opened the doors in the back and tossed her something wrapped in a plastic package before sitting down. "How's everything going now?"

The glowing girl pushed a dark strand of hair from her face. "Change of plans. A couple of scientists were supposed to take this girl from us when we got to New York, but now Laurelei is going to take her from us directly."

* * *

It took a couple of days to reach New York City. In that time, Aelita's captors had told her their names, but other than that, nothing of much interest was said. Aelita wondered why Gus had chosen a vehicle that looked like every other service vehicle in the country, and then she realized the answer was in the question. They had never been pulled over, nor had they stopped for something other than gas and food. It was as that crossed her mind that Aelita realized she was starving—it's difficult to voice your status when you're gagged, as you must be aware. They didn't remove her gag when they stopped, but the ropes were removed and she was restrained as Taelia tied her hands together in front of her. Emily kept a firm hand on her shoulder as the four teens escorted the human girl from the back of the van. Aelita looked around the place where they'd stopped. The moon was high in the sky, and it was closer to quarter than full or even gibbous. The area around her was hilly, and trees stood and touched the sky.

As Aelita's eyes showed obvious signs of amazement, someone laughed. "Welcome to Central Park, Aelita," Aelita's eyes flashed to Laurelei, who stood in front of a metal hatch. Laurelei stepped closer, and she smiled at the human girl. "I like you much better this way." She joked quietly, running her purple fingers over Aelita's gag. "I'd offer you a tee-shirt, but I'm afraid we're all out."

"In any case, well done." Laurelei directed her attention to the teens, who smiled at the compliment. "You're dismissed. Our scientists will contact you to return you to your human forms as soon as they're ready." Aelita's captors nodded, opened the hatch and went underground. When all four had gone and the hatch had closed, Laurelei's eyes flashed to Aelita. "Obviously you're aware that this wasn't a search-and-salvage mission."

Laurelei grabbed the ropes keeping Aelita's hands bound when she tried to run. She dragged the human girl over to the hatch and pushed her down into it. Aelita hit the metal floor hard, and when she stood to run, she was confronted by two people in lab coats. The first was male, his skull round and bald, and his glasses were also round but very small. They were also impractical for the man, seeing as how he had four red almond-shaped eyes at an angle. His lower half was black and resembled a spider's thorax, complete with eight fuzzy legs. The woman had dark green-blue hair pulled back into a bun with a single strand of hair in her face. Her skin was pale blue, and her ears were long and webbed. Her fingers, like her ears, were webbed, and she wore a dark skirt under her lab coat. Her face was rather pleasant in features. The woman held a clipboard while the man simply folded his hands over the part of his body where his thorax bulged out.

Aelita gasped under her gag and backed away, bumping into Laurelei as she did so. The man spoke, and he had a very thick Russian accent. "You called for us, Miss Laurelei?"

"Yes, I did." Laurelei said, and she pulled out on of Aelita's wings and showed it to the two people in lab coats. She then pushed the human girl forward so she would stumble towards the two. "I leave her in your capable hands." Laurelei pushed past the two people and down a hallway. The woman rested a hand on Aelita's shoulder and led her down the opposite hallway. The man followed, making quick footsteps with his eight legs. With a webbed finger, the woman hit a button, and the doors to the elevator opened. After filing inside, the man hit another button, and the elevator lowered itself down.

When the doors opened again, the atmosphere had completely changed—the metal floors above had been styled to look laminate, but the metal floors on the new level appeared to be steel. The man walked out, his footsteps proving her hypothesis. The walls were made of glass and gave views to different environments—some were aquatic while others volcanic and more—and occasionally creatures ran or swam past and observed the trio before running or swimming away. Some pounded on the glass and seemed to beg to be let out. As Aelita watched them, her heart broke when she saw innocent eyes that felt trapped and alone behind the glass.

She knew what it felt like to be somewhere you didn't want to be and not be able to get out. Anyone with the privilege of getting out became an object of jealousy, whether or not they wanted to be jealous of them.

The man slid a card down what looked like a credit card slider in the grocery store, and doors slid open. The room inside was completely white, and the two people covered their mouths and noses with masks before escorting Aelita to a metal slab painted white. The woman untied Aelita's hands, pushed back her sleeve past her elbow, and rubbed down the area just below her elbow with a cotton ball that smelled of rubbing alcohol. The man passed the woman a needle, and she pressed it against the area of Aelita's arm that she'd just rubbed. The woman glanced up at Aelita, and then back down to the human girl's arm before injecting the contents into it. The man patted the woman's shoulder before he placed a white hospital gown on Aelita's lap. The woman instructed her that there was a changing room in the laboratory, and she pointed at a white door with a golden handle. Aelita changed inside it, realizing that resistance was futile.

The hospital gown, she realized, did have a backside, but the back had been cropped so her shoulder blades and wings were clearly visible. As she opened the door, Aelita realized how sleepy she felt. She was instructed to lie down on her stomach on the metal slab, and she did so without thinking. She closed her eyes, and whatever happened next she was not aware of.


	24. Chapter 24

_Chapter Twenty-Four: Aelita's Nightmare_

When Aelita opened her eyes, she was in a dark forest. The sky was pitch black, and the leaves on the trees were dark green. The only source of light was the full moon, but though it shone brightly, it provided little help in illuminating the surrounding area. She stepped into the moonlight, and though it felt good to have some light in the forest, it stung like multiple beestings.

Not that she knew anything about beestings.

She looked around. No one was around her, though the dirt path she stood on was littered with footprints. Suddenly, Ulrich and Yumi ran by, disappearing into the not-so-distant darkness as quickly as they had appeared. Aelita assumed she was in another of Jeremy's memories, but soon Lyna, Gus and Odd ran past her, and Lyna stopped. She looked at the human girl, smiled and offered Aelita her hand. Aelita takes it, and the two girls run after the others. When Gus and Odd were in sight again, she could see Odd running like an animal. The four teens caught up with Yumi and Ulrich, who guarded the entrance of what appeared to be a town singed by a fire. When Yumi and Ulrich saw the others, they ran into the towns, crossing paths as they did so. Gus and Odd ran into the town as well, and Lyna was the last of the creatures to enter. Aelita looked up at the town's gate, and written in scorched letters was 'Amityville.' She walked in after her friends, not wanting to be alone on the path. Aelita looked between the blackened houses, and the doors creaked open. Creatures flooded the town, each with features that differed from the creature next to them.

Aelita was amazed by the town, but she received a weird vibe from it. She walked backward to observe everything in the town, but she tripped over someone. Lyna and Gus sat in the dirt, a fire in-between them. Gus waved his wand over it, and small red lizards that looked like fire ran from the inferno. "Salamanders," Aelita muttered, avoiding them as they lit pieces of wood and patches of grass. Aelita bumped into someone, and she turned to find Yumi. Yumi closed her eyes and a red aura surrounded her head. Stones began to float around the two girls, and when Yumi opened her eyes, the red light that came from them dripped down her face. The red aura faded from around Yumi's head, as did the light from her eyes, but the red still dripped from her eyes. Her eyes did not return.

The human girl gasped, and she backed away from the demigoddess. Aelita then bumped into someone else, and when she turned, she saw Ulrich. Ulrich ran his finger down his forehead, and Aelita could see he had erased the first 'e' in 'emeth' from his forehead. The clay Yumi had used to fix his skin fell from his body, but Ulrich's eyes remained. Whatever remained of his skin had turned a dark blue-grey color, and when he lifted his arms, his fingernails had grown out considerably, curling in on themselves. Aelita once again backed away, and then turned and ran. She turned around the outside corner of a charred house, and a trash can wobbled back and forth.

As she pressed her body to the house, Aelita looked at the trash can in fear, and she knocked off the lid with her foot. Upon doing so, she saw Suzy jump out, nearly giving her a heart attack. Suzy drew a curved sword from the trash can and pointed the tip at Aelita, and she could see that Suzy was drenched in blood. The redhead threw the sword at Aelita, and it skimmed Aelita's back. The girl tried to run, and she knocked over the can while doing so. The pink haired girl watched as what seemed like an endless supply of blood poured from the can.

She ran, not understanding what was going on. Aelita saw a water pump and ran to it, pumping to let the water run. She washed her face with it, and it was then that she realized it, too, was blood. Aelita backed away from the pump, and her eyes flashed to Odd, who sat on a metal hatch like one used by the Xanadu, only much larger. He waved to her, and then she noticed the hatch connected to the water pump that supplied blood. Aelita moved away from the hatch, and she was approached by Gus. Gus swirled his hands around, creating a space-like spiral between his hands. The spiral then revealed New York City, but it was burning. Aelita stared at it for a very long time before running. She ran into the arms of her father, and she asked him, "Daddy…?" Waldo took a step back before tapping his head and peeling away his face, revealing only darkness lying beneath it. Suddenly, in the darkness, the red symbol of Xana appeared.

"I am Xana," A deep voice came from the darkness ominously.

Aelita ran, and she hid behind one of the charred houses. Something stalked her in the darkness, and she turned to see who it was. When she could see no one, she looked around nervously before asking, "Who… who's there?" She watched as salamanders crept into the area, lighting it enough for Aelita to see Lyna hiding in the darkness. The elf girl ran, but she made no footsteps. She heard a wind approaching, and Aelita turned to face it. As soon as she did so, it rushed past her, and she looked in the direction it was going. In the wind, Aelita could see Shiloh manifest. The manifestation remained for several seconds before vanishing and leaving with the wind.

Unable to take it anymore, Aelita ran, trying to reach the gate. Yumi ran towards her, revealed her fan and spun around, sending a gust of air at her. Aelita felt herself lift up into the sky, and she caught a glimpse of the moon. There was a shadow on it, and Aelita couldn't help but notice that it resembled Laurelei dancing in the wind. She screeched as she approached the ground, but she was caught by someone. She recognized the person who caught her as Michael, and then he placed her on the ground. Michael wrapped his arm around a woman Aelita recognized as Kya, but instead of modern clothing, they wore clothing like that of peasants. The pair walked away, but they didn't go far before they joined the creatures that approached her. Odd was joined on the hatch by Yumi, Ulrich, Gus and Lyna.

The crowd of creatures separated in two, allowing a cloaked person on horseback to go by. They hopped off their horse, patting its neck affectionately. The cloak was burnt auburn in color, and it hid any defining characteristics. A creature approached the cloaked person, and they spoke for a while. At one point, the creature pointed to Aelita.

The cloaked person approached Aelita when they and the creature had finished conversing. They raised a hand, and her friends on the metal hatch twisted the wheel on it. The water pumps that surrounded the hatch began flowing blood, and the creatures around them seemed to enjoy themselves as the red bodily fluid washed over them. The cloaked person lifted both their arms, and the blood created columns. They twisted around, and the blood swirled around them and Aelita, trapping her inside a never-ending circle. Eventually, the cloaked person froze the blood, and it took on a mirror-like quality. Aelita could see herself from all angles. "Aelita…" The cloaked person said, and they reached for their hood. Aelita backed away as far as possible, fearing whoever was hiding beneath the hood. "Aelita, are you alright?" They asked as they removed it, revealing Jeremy to be under the cloak.

"_Jeremy!_" Aelita exclaimed, "I'm so glad to see you! I was so scared that the person under that hood was going to kill me and… and…" She noticed that the blood ice that surrounded them had lost its red coloring and had become pale blue.

Jeremy smiled, and Aelita smiled back before embracing him. "It's okay now, Aelita, because I'm here now, and I won't let anyone here harm you." Jeremy said, returning the embrace. He leaned his head on hers, and when she hugged him tighter, she rubbed her hand across his back without knowing it. He became very tense and then shivered. She noticed as much and backed away, opening her mouth to ask him a question before noticing her hand. It had a thin layer of blood on it.

Her eyes widened. "Why are you bleeding?" Aelita asked him, and he couldn't respond right away. "I'd love it if you and I could leave this town now. There's so much blood here…"

Salamanders crawled over the ice, making it melt. As it melted, the red was visible again, and it dripped down the ice like water would have done. Jeremy was caught in the moonlight as the blood ice was close to being nothing but a circular puddle of red bodily fluid, and underneath the cloak where darkness hid all, Aelita could see the purple burns that he'd had when she had first seen him. He, too, noticed that, and he backed away from her. She tried to get him to come closer, but the creatures moved closer to her. The suddenly jump back, and Aelita is knocked down by some unseen force. She looks to her back and sees that it was completely drenched in blood, and she looked to Jeremy. He looked back at her for a long time before he turned and threw his hood over his head.

Aelita could only watch as Jeremy mounted his horse. It reared before galloping out of town. The creatures moved closer to Aelita once more, hunger evident in their eyes. They collapsed before they reached her, but shadows with the same hungry eyes moved closer to her. One of them scratched her, leaving three deep gash wounds in her arm. "_Jeremy!_" Aelita shouted, trying to get him to come back. When he didn't, she shouted his name again, and when the same result aroused, she repeated the process over and over until the shadows around her had their grip on her and her eyes were filled with bloody tears. She called out her wings, trying to fly away from the shadows, but they muffled her take off. One of the shadows brought their knife-like fingers to the area of her back between her skin and her wings.

* * *

Aelita's eyes snapped open. Her back stung like thousands of bees had not only stung it, but were still stinging it. Her stomach was cold on the metal slab, but her back was warm. She fluttered her wings, but she could only feel one flutter. The other didn't seem to, nor could she feel it when she moved the wing that could flutter over to it. She moved a bit to look at her wings, and when she could see them, she realized it was not 'wings,' but 'wing.' She screeched, and it was only amplified when she saw the blood pouring from her back onto the slab and then to the floor. The woman came over and shushed her, and she looked deep into Aelita's eyes before smiling and pushing a pink hair from the human girl's face in a motherly way. "Professor, the subject has awakened," The woman said, her voice pleasant, like her features.

"Ai ya ya… well, we are too far into the experiment to knock her out now." The man said, throwing up his hands and returning with a knife. The woman looked sympathetically at Aelita before placing her hands on her shoulders to hold her down to the metal slab. Aelita repositioned herself to view what the man and the woman were doing, and her eyes widened as the man held a knife to her remaining wing. She began to kick and scream and beg for them not to do it, and she could feel the woman's force weaken, but not enough so that Aelita could break free. She continued to plead with the two, which proved little effective. The man began to cut off her free wing in the middle of her pleading, which caused her to scream out in pain and begin to cry. "Miss Ainsley, please silence the girl."

The woman—Ainsley—hushed Aelita without removing her hands. Aelita simply screamed and cried louder and harder, and the two creatures thought it was because Aelita wanted to make them angry, but it wasn't—the man had begun to cut into the bone in her wing. Ainsley knelt to become eye-level with the human girl, but she gasped when she saw tears of blood running down her face. "Professor, she's bleeding from her eyes!"

The man sighed, left the knife where it was in Aelita's wing and looked at the human girl's face. "Simply wipe it off when the experiment is complete," The man said, and before he began to cut again, he added, "You must excuse Miss Ainsley, madam, but she's new." The man continued to slice off her wing, and she cried out when he made it through the bone. Eventually, he made it through her bone and to the other edge of the skin, and Aelita cried out as he sliced through it. She felt the blood pour out when he moved the wing from her back to an unseen place. Ainsley helped Aelita sit up as the man turned on water. "Please help the subject with her bandages, Miss Ainsley. I shall return after I deliver these to Miss Laurelei." The man said, and Aelita watched as the spider man walked out with her wings in hand.

Ainsley huffed as she watched him, and she opened a drawer. She removed a roll of medical tape—like Lyna usually had on her—and helped Aelita remove the top of the hospital dress so she could wrap the tape around her torso. Aelita still sobbed uncontrollably, and her shoulders wracked as Ainsley placed thin pieces of metal on the tape to keep it in place. She looked at the human girl sympathetically as she wiped the bloody tears in a motherly way. "What's your name?" Ainsley asked, brushing a pink hair from Aelita's face.

"Ae—Ae—Aelita…" The human girl murmured, and Ainsley handed the girl her clothes and walked her to the changing room.

"Dear Aelita, I am so sorry; can you forgive me for this…?" Ainsley asked, her eyes cloudy as Aelita opened the door to the dressing room. She blinked for a moment, and then led Aelita back to the metal slab. Aelita watched the doors carefully, and when they opened to let the man in, she ran forward as fast as she could to leave. The doors shut on her foot, and she removed her boot to allow herself an escape. She pressed the button for the elevator repeatedly, whispering for them to open repeatedly. When they did, she pressed a random button and then the 'Close Door' button, and she could see both of the scientists rush forward just as the door closed and began to lift.

Aelita sighed happily as the elevator headed for the surface, but it was short-lived. The floor fell out from under her, and she screamed as she fell towards the bottom of the shaft. Eventually, she landed on something that was both hard and bouncy, and she heard something clasp. When she was brought into the light, she could see she was in a cage of darkness, and the room she was in gave her chills.

It was dimly lit and made of dirty sand-colored stones, and the floor was steel. A jazz version of '_Entrance of the Gladiators_' played eerily in the background. At first, Aelita thought that dead bodies were suspended on the walls, but one of them looked up at her, and she saw him breathe. He had purple burns across his chest, like Jeremy had once had. The other bodies—whether they were alive or dead, she could not tell—had similar burns. Aelita was suspended from a chain hanging from the ceiling, and she watched as a throne made of the same stone as the wall turned. She looked at it in confusion when it was revealed to be empty, but then someone grabbed the edge of her cage.

It was Laurelei. "Well, well, well—what have we here? You claim to be Princess Aelita, a person only known to us by legend. If you are, in fact, her, it is very disappointing. Your bloodline was known for being very wise and beautiful. You're the most naïve person I've ever met, and ugly to boot." Laurelei laughed, and Aelita looked away, her face red from embarrassment.

She suddenly looked at the gancanagh and snapped, "Such big words for someone so stupid!"

Laurelei laughed again, and she pushed the cage, making it shake back and forth. "You're funny! I might just split a seam now, if I don't die laughing first."

"Perhaps you wouldn't split a seam if your clothes weren't physically attached to your skin!" Aelita insulted her, and then added, "Release me now or you must face the dire consequences!"

"_Ha!_" Laurelei laughed, placing her hands on her knees. "You're joking, you're joking! I can't believe my ears! Someone shut this girl up—I'm drowning in my tears!" She leaned against the cage, unable to contain herself. "She's funny—I'm laughing! Now I see why you're the one everyone is talking about."

Laurelei walked towards the elevator a bit, and when she turned to face Aelita once more, her face still seemed smug, but she'd calmed down. "You really are too much. That being said—only with your permission, of course—I'm going to do my stuff."

"That depends," Aelita said, trying to look more intimidating than she felt. "What are you going to do?"

"The best I can," She responded, laughing. Walls turned around, some with people attached to them, and they revealed a variety of things were hiding on the other side—mostly weapons, but Laurelei approached one with medical tools. "_Ha!_" She shouted again, picking up a needle.

"Is that supposed to scare me?"

"No; not until I use it on you, of course," Laurelei shrugged. "But, hey—I'm a reasonable girl. Would you like to die _before_ or _after_ watching that particular blond elf boy you care so much for grovel for my love and then die trying to get it?"

Aelita was left speechless.

"You plan on _killing_ him?" She asked, her voice squeaking.

"It's much more fun, I must confess, when lives are on the line—" Laurelei smirked, and then shrugged as she said, "—not _mine_, of course, but _yours…_ that's fine."

"He'll never agree to do…" Aelita paused—she knew the basics of what it took for someone to become addicted to Laurelei but she did not have a vast knowledge on the subject—and she continued when she found something that sounded good. "…whatever it is you plan on doing with him!"

"You're right—he'll never agree to do it with me. I don't plan on him doing anything with me. He's going to agree to do it with _you._"

Aelita paused. "How will that work, exactly?" She suddenly realized that she really couldn't care either way she would attempt to kill Jeremy—she was hung up on the fact that she was going to try to kill him— and became frantic. "_Release me now, gancanagh!_"

Laurelei, too, became frantic—but in a different way. She laughed hysterically. "Oh, sister, you are something else! You've put me in a real spin! You aren't comprehending…" Laurelei walked as she spoke, and eventually, she stopped and faced Aelita. She lifted up Aelita's wings and then kicked a steel tile on the floor. Underneath the tile was a button, and when Laurelei pressed it, more steel tiles moved to reveal a pot of boiling green liquid underneath. She tossed the pink wings into the pot and Aelita watched as the feathers dissolved and the remnants sunk. Aelita glared at the gancanagh, who then held up something she recognized as her necklace. "…the position that you're in." Laurelei called the poison back to her lips and then darkness covered her entire body. When the darkness faded, a mirror-image reflection of Aelita—the only difference being that the fake Aelita wore Laurelei's clothing—stood where Laurelei had once been. The fake Aelita draped her necklace around herself, and then spoke in Aelita's voice, "It's hopeless. You're finished. You haven't got a _prayer!_"

The fake Aelita—Laurelei—walked off, leaving the real Aelita sitting in a cage made of darkness.

* * *

A/N: While writing this, I had this idea in my head of Aelita either hearing one of her friends on the phone for the first time or seeing them on TV and then shouting' How'd you get in the box? Don't worry, I'll save you!' For the phone, she threw it on the ground while she pushes the TV off of wherever it was. They broke either way, and then she sorta just _looked_ at it.

Obviously that has nothing to do with anything, but…

I like this chapter. Oddly enough, I did _not_ cry this chapter. I actually had to stifle a laugh, but that was when I was typing the Author's Note, so that doesn't count.


	25. Chapter 25

_Chapter Twenty-Five: United We Stand, Divided We Fall_

Ligaya struggled against the flap of the pocket. It had been trying to break free from the pocket for several days, and its stomach growled from hunger. Ignoring it, the pixie continued, and it managed to push the flap up enough for it to reach through and untie the strings. Ligaya threw the flap up and buzzed out of the pocket, and it immediately began its search for Aelita.

When it found her, it was shocked by what it saw. It could only watch as Aelita suffered through the removal of her wings, but when it turned to fly out, hoping to find Jeremy and tell him what it saw, it became trapped. Ligaya observed what had trapped her, discovering it was a spider's web, and it watched in horror as the owner crept closer. It struggled against the sticky strands, and when it had freed itself, it looked at the compound eyes of a fly. Ligaya helped the fly out, and it watched as Aelita ran down the hallway with one boot. She pressed the button for the elevator button repeatedly, and Ligaya nose-dived to try and reach her. Its foot was caught by the spider, and Ligaya struggled against it. When it finally broke free, it buzzed to the elevator, only to find the doors had closed. It transformed its body to light, and it slid through the crack in that way. Ligaya looked down and saw that the elevator had dropped its floor, and the pixie nose-dived again.

Ligaya managed to get to the floor Aelita was on as a girl who looked like the pixie's human friend but dressed like the gancanagh from Jeremy's memories exited the room. Ligaya was only able to see a glimpse of the room, but from what it saw, it knew that the girl was the gancanagh and not the human. Aelita sat in a black cage. The gancanagh wore Aelita's necklace, and while the pixie didn't know what the gancanagh intended to do, it knew that it needed to tell the others.

Jeremy had finished brushing his teeth and opened his door to find Aelita lying on his bed. It was the only thing he noticed besides _how_ she was lying, but the room's lighting had also dimmed and candles were burning. Jeremy blinked for a moment, and he struggled to find words. "Uh, Aelita, what are you doing?"

Aelita looked over to him, and she smiled, but it wasn't her normal innocent smile, but a seductive one. "Waiting for _you,_ obviously." She shrugged, sitting up before continuing. "I haven't seen you in, like, a _week._"

"Nine days, actually," Jeremy corrected her with a confused look on his face. It was then that he noticed her necklace around her neck. "Where'd you get that?"

"That what?" Aelita asked.

"Your necklace," Jeremy clarified.

"Oh." Aelita said, her eyes widening, as if what he'd asked hadn't been what she'd planned he would say. "You gave it back to me, remember?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I didn't." Jeremy said, easing towards the door. Aelita noticed as much and stood up, walking towards him. "How did you get in here, exactly?"

Aelita motioned towards the window. "Say, can I ask you to do something for me? Like, a favor?"

"Uh… that sorta depends on what the favor _is…_"

"You don't have to be nervous or anything. I'm sure you're going to enjoy about as much as I will." Aelita's seductive smile returned.

Jeremy blushed heavily, and then he said, "Um… well, whatever it is, it's going to have to wait until after breakfast." He opened his door and then closed it after leaving, which left Aelita on the inside. As he walked away, he rubbed the back of his neck and muttered, "It's at this point when I would normally wish I could lock my door from the outside, but that was her life for eight years…"

He entered the kitchen, where he smiled when he saw the beginning of his breakfast laid out. Jeremy poured the cereal into the bowl and noticed his mother hadn't put out the milk—understandably, because unintentionally warm milk isn't exactly at the top of anyone's favorite list—and opened the refrigerator. When he grabbed the carton, he looked at the picture of the missing child that was always on it.

When he recognized the picture of the girl, Jeremy dropped the carton.

He was completely still for a moment, but then he picked it up. He considered putting it back in the fridge, no longer hungry for anything that required milk, but then he closed the fridge and brought the carton up to his room. Aelita smiled at him in her newfound seductive way, and Jeremy simply looked between her and the girl on the milk carton for a while. He jumped at the sound of something pounding on his window, and he looked at it. The pounding sound became repetitive, and he walked over to it.

When he saw what it was, he reluctantly looked at Aelita. "Why…" He paused, wondering if the girl he saw was actually the girl he wanted to see, and he finished his sentence. "…why did you trap Ligaya outside?"

Aelita threw up her hands and honestly said, "I didn't!"

Jeremy nodded with the slightest hint of 'a _likely_ story' on his face. He opened the window, and Ligaya gripped his nose with its hands. "_Jeremy! Jeremy! Big mean beastie on way look like Aelita!_" The pixie looked at Aelita, and it buzzed over to her, its green color turning to red as it buzzed around Aelita's head and pulled on her hair. Jeremy walked over calmly and simply watched, not exactly sure what he wanted to do. "_Not Aelita! Not Aelita!_" Ligaya shouted, stamping its foot on the human girl's head. Aelita simply brushed the pixie off, and when she stood to approach Jeremy, he held her back with his foot. Ligaya flew over to Jeremy. "_Aelita New York! Aelita New York!_"

Ligaya rested on Jeremy's knee and began to act out something. First, it laid down on his leg and folded one wing down. It screamed as it did the same to the other. Then it stood and ran in place, and then pushed air repeatedly. Ligaya then walked away with a seductive step to it, after which it ran back to where it had been, sat with its rear end on its heels and pretended to cry into its hands with its wings folded down to its back. It then flew over to Jeremy and gripped his nose again. "_Jeremy gotta believe me!_"

Jeremy was confused for a moment. "You want to make a movie that's a cross between '_Repo: the Genetic Opera_' and '_Peter Pan_'?"

"_No!_" Ligaya shouted. "_Aelita wing go, now meanie beastie pretend Aelita!_"

"Oh," Jeremy nodded. He'd done so with a smile—not that he was happy about what had been said—because he was amused at how wrong he was, but then what it had said sunk in. "Wait, what? So then…" He looked up at Aelita—or, he supposed, who was pretending to be Aelita—and said, "…who's this?"

Aelita seemed genuinely hurt that Jeremy didn't believe she was who she said she was. "Jeremy, I'm surprised at you…" She scolded, but then her seductive smile returned, "You've been a bad boy…"

Jeremy shook his head. "This is really weird." He observed with his hands up. He looked at Ligaya and conversed with it. "But this isn't Aelita."

"_No._"

"It's a creature."

"_Yes._"

"That wants to have sex with me."

"_Yes?_"

"And the real Aelita is in New York?"

"_Yes._"

Jeremy paused to look at the fake Aelita. "I know who it is." He looked at the girl closer for a moment, and added, "Besides, now that I look at her more closely, her eyes sort of look like a peacock, don't they?" Ligaya got closer to the fake Aelita and examined her eyes closely. It nodded. Jeremy reached forward and snatched Aelita's necklace from the doppelganger's neck.

"Hey!" The fake Aelita exclaimed, and she reached for the necklace. "That's mine! Give it back!"

"Nope, it's mine now. I called it." Jeremy said, shrugging. He pulled his knee closer to himself so the doppelganger could move closer, and when she did, he kicked her away. She stood, eyeing him evilly before allowing darkness to overwhelm her. It faded to reveal Laurelei—Jeremy had guessed it, but he noted that she'd given up much more quickly than usual—who then pounced for the necklace. Jeremy simply stepped out of the way. Laurelei hit the floor but rolled and jumped right back up. After she pounced again and the cycle thus repeated, Jeremy laughed, tossed the necklace up in the air and caught it with a swipe—a common action for gloating about having an item another person wanted. "Besides, it's not like you know how to _use_ it, anyway."

"What do you mean?" Laurelei demanded.

"Part of Aelita's powers is forcing her will over the will of someone else." Jeremy explained with a shrug. He walked to his door, as if to leave, but then he paused and looked over his shoulder. "Which means that if you actually knew how to use it, you could have ordered me to do whatever you wanted me to do and I would have done it." He smirked and shrugged again, leaving the room with one last comment. "But, you didn't, and it's too late now."

Laurelei smacked herself in her forehead. Refusing to accept her loss, she chased after Jeremy, tripping on the hallway rug as she did so. Darkness was launched at the elf boy, who dodged it. Jeremy pulled water from the air, and as he did so, Laurelei launched another round of darkness at him. He blocked it with the water and then froze it, launching icy daggers at her. Laurelei dodged them like a gymnast. Eventually, the constant throwing of blows became tiring and she drew a piece of paper from her boot. "Obviously you're upset," Laurelei shrugged, handing the paper to Jeremy. When he refused it, she shrugged again and placed it on a chair. "Tomorrow there's a fancy party at the base. Maybe you'll come and…" Laurelei made her way to the door, stopping next to him to finish. "…we'll talk then, 'kay?"

"You're a bitch; you know that, right?" Jeremy asked her as she left. She shrugged once more. Jeremy eyed her in annoyance and then looked to Ligaya cautiously before reaching for the paper. He opened it so it first faced away from him, and then turned it around to look at it. It was fancy stationary, written on with equally fancy penmanship. "I'm beginning to think that this is a trap. I really am." He said to Ligaya, who shrugged. "I mean, we're their _enemies._ Nobody invites their enemies to parties."

He paused for a moment. "Ah, what the hell."

* * *

"Jeremy, this is _obviously_ a trap." Yumi said point-blankly at the invitation. "Laurelei may be stupid, but she's not _that_ stupid." She pointed out.

Jeremy sighed. "I know that. But it looks legitimate. They're celebrating the completion of the formal letter going to the United Nations that declares war on every country with a representative." He explained. "Which means ninety-nine point nine percent of the world."

"They plan on exterminating ninety-nine point nine percent of the _world?_" Odd asked, both amazed and disgusted.

Lyna looked at him and nodded. "Yup. Just like hand sanitizer." She looked at Jeremy and asked, "So, which countries are they not fighting…?"

"From what I've come to understand, the Vatican City and Kosovo." Jeremy responded. "They're both independent countries, the United Nations only has one hundred and ninety-two representatives, and I don't think those two are included in that tally*."

Yumi blinked and looked at the invitation. "Who would want to celebrate something like that? It's World War Three! They'll be creamed!"

Jeremy shrugged. "I guess so. But the Xanadu Clan is the largest organization of magical creatures on Earth, and then they also have allied the vampires, which are the dominant species of Lyoko." He explained, sitting. "When I saw the vampires' troops, they probably easily outnumbered the U.S.A's military, and I doubt that was the entire army. Not to mention they could force other creatures into their army, and humans that join are probably being genetically altered to become creatures. You know, like Odd was."

Odd blinked. "I would've been forced into their army?"

"Most likely. Creatures in the Xanadu usually plan some role to the military." Ulrich explained. "And in October we learned that humans had been joining."

"Yes, but there's no proof that they've been genetically altered." Jeremy nodded. "But even if they weren't, they joined for a reason. They'd still have a role in the military."

"Humans that become scared of their fate will join to become creatures to avoid execution." Gus agreed. There was a silence, giving depth to the situation. Humans and creatures were most likely evenly matched number-wise, but creatures had magic. They'd adopted science as well. The gang consisted of six teenagers who knew about an attack that was about to be launched on pretty much the entire world.

But, it dawned them, who would believe them? Teenage years always made it seem like the world was an evil place that was out to get them. Many non-believers, too, thought that magical creatures were simply things of mindless legend. They thought the creatures that had appeared in the small West Virginian town were hoaxes.

Who was to say any of that would change when the letter was sent? It could either be taken seriously or reviled as a joke. They could destroy the letter, making the attack that would follow a surprise attack, or they could tell a world leader, who would most likely call security. An assault on the Xanadu was out of the question—that would basically be a suicide mission—and they were too tightly fool-proof to believe the teens and cause a rebellion. The war would be inevitable.

Odd coughed. "So, uh, are we going or not?"

Yumi said 'no' while Jeremy said 'yes,' and the immediate disagreement caused them to look at one another. "Jeremy, this is suicide."

"We aren't going there to attack or celebrate. Aelita's being held captive by Laurelei." Jeremy objected.

Lyna huffed. "Are you still hung up on that? She's fine, I'm telling you!"

Jeremy spun to look at her. "Her face was on the milk carton. Her mother hasn't seen her, either, and Ligaya said that she's in New York."

"Whoa, her face was on the milk carton? Her mom has some serious connections." Lyna joked, but she became serious quickly. "Right, sorry. And you connected that to Laurelei because…?"

"Because Laurelei disguised herself as Aelita and tried to get me to have sex with her."

"Oh. That's definitely—wait, Laurelei did? She can do that?"

"Apparently she can!"

"Anyway, so you're plan is get in, find Aelita, get out."

"Basically."

"And, how long do you anticipate that this'll take?"

"I don't know. An hour? Maybe less."

"The flight is somewhere from one to two hours. Then another hour to find Aelita, get back on the plane and fly another flight back. That's three to five hours, not including wait time."

"Your point being…?"

"You're missing three to five hours a day. Why did you tell us?" Ulrich interrupted the conversation between the elfin siblings.

Jeremy smirked. "I'm glad you asked."

* * *

"I. Feel. _Ridiculous._" Lyna hissed as Kya braided her straightened hair. She examined herself in the mirror, her hair reaching just above her shoulder blades. Her normal clothes had been traded for a red dress with short sleeves that barely covered her shoulders. It reached just below her knees and had white beading around the neckline. Her striped stockings had been traded for sheer blue tights. However, she refused to give up her red moccasin boots. When Kya finished straightening Lyna's hair, she pulled a chocker necklace over her head. There was red and blue beading with white claw-like beads that decorated her neck just before it curved. "Stupid Jeremy. Making me go to this stupid party in this stupid dress." Lyna muttered sharply as she folded her arms across her chest.

Kya laughed and gently placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Oh, cheer up. You're going to a party." She comforted, opening the door so Lyna could run out. She bumped into Jeremy upon doing so, and when she realized it was him, she smacked him on the back of the head.

Jeremy smiled and smoothed the hair that Lyna had displaced. "It must be so easy to be a guy." Lyna noted after looking him over. Jeremy wore a black suit and a white shirt underneath, but he wasn't wearing a tie. Ligaya sat the pocket on his jacket. He adjusted his glasses before he responded.

"What do you mean?" He asked, not looking at her directly.

"Well, it's just that you don't hear guys say, 'Oh, no, get me out of here—that guy over there is wearing the same suit as me.'" Lyna explained, pushing a newly straightened strand of hair behind her ear. "No, when guys see another guy wearing the same suit as them, they know they're doing something right! But girls… we can't do that."

Jeremy laughed, and Lyna smoothed his collar. "That's very true." He agreed.

Lyna smiled. "Either way, you look nice. But…" She paused. "…no tie?"

"It's all part of the plan." Jeremy tapped his head, and Lyna rolled her eyes. She looked around him to the other boys of the gang. Gus and Ulrich wore black suits, like Jeremy, with white shirts. Gus wore a red and black striped tie while Ulrich wore a pale green tie. Odd's suit was purple, as was his tie, but his shirt was black.

When Odd saw Lyna looking at him strangely, he laughed and said, "I dare to be original."

The gang talked for a bit, but Ulrich removed himself from the conversation when Yumi entered the room. She'd changed her normal clothes for a tight black dress and black boots, and she'd applied a black gloss to her lips. It was probably less formal than the others, but she looked great. "Wow, _Yumi,_" Ulrich gasped, and a smile spread across his face. Yumi laughed nervously and blushed. "Uh… you look, uh, good." He finished in embarrassment.

As if to prevent the conversation from taking a turn for the awkward, Gus coughed to gain the others' attention, and then he asked Jeremy, "So, our flight is leaving when?"

Jeremy unfolded the ticket information he'd placed in his jacket pocket and then recited the time. "The party should be in full swing by the time we land. You all remember the plan, right?" He said, looking to the creatures quickly before placing the papers back in his jacket. They nodded. Yumi adjusted her sleeves, which came down over the tops of her hands and had a hole where the middle finger went through. Gus pulled his dreadlocks back and tied them in a ponytail on his neck with a white hair tie. "Well, we should be heading off then."

* * *

*God love the Internet.

* * *

A/N: Sorry this took forever, and I'm especially sorry if this was lame. I had the idea of this party that they're about to crash the other day when I realized Jeremy has the same first and last initials as James Bond, aka 007. Also, as you've probably noticed, only the part in the last chapter that took place in Amityville is Aelita's nightmare. And, yes, it is a reference to '_the Nightmare Before Christmas._' Sometimes, when I'm writing, I'm also listening to music, and I have most of the soundtrack on my iPod. Well, I was listening to a couple of songs from it and decided to incorporate them. I figured they would fit. There are a lot of mean beasties in this story, after all!

Ha, ha. Ligaya moment.


	26. Chapter 26

_Chapter Twenty-Six: Harmless_

Aelita pressed her back to the cage sadly. She arched it slowly so she could bring her hand behind it, and then rubbed the place where her wings had once been. The stinging had more or less stopped, but it still hurt to move. She could feel the place where her wings had been amputated. Through the bandages, the skin felt torn and drenched, and the bones that had been in her wings jetted out and were rough where they'd been cut. Aelita had stopped crying days earlier, but the dried blood stains in her eyes and on her face itched. She rubbed one cheek gruffly, and her thoughts wandered to Laurelei. The gancanagh had left for her mission earlier, but there were no clocks in her lair and Aelita was unsure of the exact time that passed. She pulled her knees up and then wrapped her arms around them, trying to comfort herself. She sighed, and she wanted to cry again, but her body was out of them.

She jumped when she saw a spider crawl into her cage. Aelita watched it for a moment. It was about the size of her fingertip and fuzzy. She tried to keep away from it. Eventually, she lifted her hand into the air, as if preparing to bring her hand onto the spider to kill it, but then she hesitated when the spider stopped crawling and curled upon itself. It was almost as if it knew Aelita was about to kill it and it was preparing for the impact. She lowered her hand, losing whatever nerve she had left, and offered her finger to the spider. It hesitated before crawling onto it, and then she lifted her hand out of the cage to release it onto the top of the cage.

After making sure the spider had removed itself from her finger, Aelita brought her hand back into the cage at the same moment the doors to Laurelei's lair opened. Laurelei walked in. The gancanagh released a long string of curses before tossing something at Aelita gruffly. Laurelei pushed on the stone throne, revealing a room behind it. She entered the room before pushing on the throne again to force it back into place. Aelita stared at the throne for a moment before turning her attention to what had been thrown at her. At first, she thought it was a wad of cloth, but after unwinding it, she saw that it was a plain white tee-shirt and a pair of dark pink short shorts.

The human girl was completely at loss for why Laurelei had thrown new clothes at her. Aelita assumed that they were Laurelei's clothes and had thrown them at her so she would hold them until she was finished doing… whatever it was she was doing.

When Laurelei entered the room again, she'd changed into a slinky metallic white dress without straps and strap high heels. Her finger and toenails had French nails, and she'd pulled her hair back into a ponytail. Aelita watched as she applied a shimmery white powder to her eyelids and pulled the poison from her lips. Laurelei closed the round item she held in her hand and looked at Aelita, after which a look of confusion spread across her face. "What are you just sitting there for? This isn't art school, and you're not getting a portrait painted! Get changed, for Christ's sake!" Laurelei snapped suddenly, leaning against a wall with an annoyed look. Aelita noted that her dress reached just above her ankles and had a long slit on her leg, which revealed the shapeliness of her purple-skinned appendages.

It was women like Laurelei that made women like Aelita feel very ugly in comparison. There was no doubt that both girls were pretty, but Laurelei had more of a sex-appeal beauty while Aelita was honest beauty. Laurelei closer resembled modern society's image of beauty, and after years of reading in books and watching on television the 'definition' of beauty combined with very seldom looking at herself in the mirror, it was only natural Aelita felt that way.

Aelita hesitated, and Laurelei tapped her foot on the steel flooring. "I… can't." She finally admitted, which clearly ticked Laurelei off.

"What do you mean 'you can't'?" She demanded, pushing a stray hair from her face.

The human girl flinched. "It hurts to move and I'm not comfortable changing in front of you…" She explained, noting that her pink hair had fallen into her face but doing nothing to correct the problem.

Laurelei placed her fingers on the top of the bridge of her nose and then brought her hand down to push up her face with a sober expression. She considered snapping again, but then threw up her hands. "Fine. Whatever." She huffed, spinning around on the stiletto heels of her shoes. She faced the wall, and Aelita paused to make sure the gancanagh wouldn't turn prematurely before struggling to change in the small cage.

Laurelei _did_ turn prematurely, but only to find that Aelita was struggling to pull the white shirt over the bandages that wrapped her torso. She realized it was because moving her arms pulled on the bandages and thus agitated the wounds left by the amputation of her wings. Laurelei stifled a laugh that arose. She knew that most people's heart would break for the human girl if they could see her, but the gancanagh wasn't like most people. She hated humans before meeting Aelita, and she found that human pain was amusing.

Especially Aelita's.

Eventually, Aelita managed to pull the white shirt over the bandages. The shirt was close-fitting but not tight—Laurelei had made sure to find one that was as such so no one could see the bandages showing through—and reached over the top of the shorts, which revealed most of her thighs. If she could call them thighs, Laurelei joked in her thoughts. In her opinion, they closer resembled chicken legs.

"About time," The gancanagh muttered, walking towards Aelita with a swagger about her. She snatched away the human girl's normal clothes and her remaining boot, tossing them carelessly onto the throne. She opened a drawer and dug around in it, eventually finding what she'd been looking for—a permanent marker. Laurelei smirked and then walked back over to the cage Aelita sat in and opened the door to it. "Alright, get out." She ordered, examining her nails while doing so. Aelita eyed the gancanagh cautiously while stepping out of the cage, stumbling a bit after doing so. When she regained her balance, she watched Laurelei again for a few moments before attempting to make her way to the door. Laurelei stuck out her leg to stop her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa—where do you think you're going?"

Aelita paused for a moment. "Aren't…" She paused once more. "…aren't you letting me go?"

"Where in the hell did you get that idea? Fuck no!" Laurelei snapped in a tone of exasperation.

"Well, if you aren't letting me go, why'd you let me out?" Aelita asked, her tone sharp.

Laurelei flicked Aelita between her eyebrows. "It's harder to write on you when you're in a _cage,_ dumbass." She said sharply, which was responded to by a long, blank stare. Laurelei huffed, but then she smiled evilly. She uncapped the permanent marker. She looked at it, and then muttered, "Haze therapy,"

"What?" Aelita asked sarcastically. "Your date with Jeremy not go over well?"

There was no hesitation after Aelita said that. Laurelei slapped her across the face. It created a loud noise, and Aelita was stunned for a moment. She gently placed her hand on her cheek before looking up to Laurelei. Laurelei held her arm in the position that had come after the slap, as if to threaten to hit her again. She expected the human girl to mock her again, but Aelita remained silent. There was a long and awkward silence before Laurelei returned her attention to the marker and hissed, "Put your hand down." Aelita obeyed reluctantly, her cheek stinging. When she did, the gancanagh moved to put the tip of the marker on the human girl's shirt, but she backed away. Laurelei grabbed her wrist and said, "Stop moving, you worthless piece of _shit!_"

When Aelita struggled against her, Laurelei tightened her grip on her wrist, digging her French manicured nails into her skin. The human girl winced, but pulled on her wrist to try to get away. The gancanagh adjusted her foot and dug her stiletto heel into Aelita's foot. She yelped in pain. "Now, are you going to stop moving?" Laurelei asked rhetorically, and Aelita nodded. She smirked, feeling victorious. "Good. You're finally being obedient; just like a dog _should_ be." Laurelei laughed at the look of hate that Aelita gave to her. "I suppose I shouldn't call you a dog. Dogs are usually cute, _and_ you don't have to get your hands dirty to make them servile."

Aelita wished she was a dog. A dog had canine teeth that she could bite Laurelei with.

Laurelei could see that feeling written all over her face. "You've got a spirit like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going and going…" Laurelei said, rolling her hand with her wrist as she spoke. "We can't have _that,_ can we?" She smirked, jerking her heel from Aelita's foot and walking to a wall. She removed a chain from it, and she snapped it like a whip in Aelita's direction. "I guess we'll just have to send you back to Obedience School, eh? Could've sworn you graduated after we killed your livelihood."

The human girl opened her mouth to say something, but the gancanagh snapped her chain whip at her again. "I'm going to tell you how this is going to work, okay, and you better listen good, because I'm only going to tell you this _once._" Laurelei draped her chain over her shoulder and grabbed Aelita's hair. "I am going to tell you the truth and nothing but the truth about you, and you're going to listen, alright? You're going to do everything I say when I say it and if I don't like the way you do it the first time you're going to do it again, and if you don't I'll hit you with this chain, do I make myself clear?" Laurelei got close to the human girl's face, and Aelita nodded. "Good, because you've got to be the ugliest and stupidest person on this planet, and you should be _ashamed_ of yourself. You're a coward, and the years that you've been gone from Lyoko and hiding on Earth only prove my point. People shouldn't be allowed to call you their princess, and you shouldn't even be one in the first place, seeing as how your father used to be part creature.

"But, that being said, you might as well go back to your little hideout in France. It'll save all the rest of us from looking at your ugly mug." Laurelei bashed, and Aelita flinched. Laurelei noticed as much and decided to hit her where she knew it hurt. "I can't see why Jeremy is even wasting his time putting up with you. I'll tell you one thing, though, I spoke with him yesterday, and he said that you're just a burden on him. You've got about as much smarts as a rock if you think he's in love with you!" She continued, and Aelita visibly became more and more insecure and upset. Red tears began to stream from her face. Laurelei took advantage of the opportunity. She straightened her back and rolled her eyes. "And now you're crying. That makes you a crybaby on top of everything else. Can you believe that you would easily fetch hundreds of millions of dollars if I were to put a ransom on your head? It's ridiculous.

"You're worthless. Do you hear me?" Laurelei placed a finger sharply on the human girl's nose.

"Yes," Aelita muttered, head hanging.

"I want to hear you say it," Laurelei demanded.

"Worthless," Aelita droned like a machine.

"Who's worthless?" Laurelei tilted her head; acting like what the human girl had said wasn't audible.

"I'm worthless." Aelita 'corrected' herself.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you!" Laurelei demanded, and Aelita looked up to her slowly. She could see her eyes had been stained red by her tears. "Now, who's worthless?" She asked in a bittersweet voice.

"_I'm_ worthless!" Aelita spoke louder than she had before, as if annoyed about repeating herself.

The gancanagh held back a smirk. She picked up the marker she'd dropped and wrote on Aelita shirt 'worthless.' When she'd finished, she said, "There. Now everyone can see just what you are." Laurelei capped the marker. Realizing Aelita hadn't disobeyed and therefore hadn't been hit with the chain; she took a few steps back and snapped it in her direction. It hit her arm and broke through the first few layers of skin. The human girl's hand flew to the place on her arm that Laurelei had hit with the chain whip, and her eyes flashed to the gancanagh. Her eyes seemed pained, but while her pained eyes would have had at least a hint of determination in them before, her eyes seemed borderline dead. "And I've got a party to go to." Laurelei shrugged, holding open the cage door so Aelita would get inside. When she didn't, Laurelei cracked the chain whip again, and the human girl dragged herself to it. "Ta-ta," Laurelei waved.

Aelita watched the gancanagh leave, and she looked down to her bare toes.

* * *

The ballroom was crammed with creatures, and the gang stuck together to avoid being separated. "So, before we start, any questions?" Jeremy asked, his eyes flashing to each creature quickly before Odd spoke.

"Um, yes, how come I can't snap?" Odd asked, looking down to his paws in confusion. He attempted to snap, but as his question suggested, he couldn't.

Jeremy smacked himself in the forehead. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"I dunno. Just wondering, I guess."

"You've got giant furry cat paws! Figure it out!" Jeremy sighed. "Anyone else?"

Lyna looked him dead in the eyes. "Yes. What do you want us to do?"

"Does it matter? Keep the guards busy."

"Any advice?"

"Yeah. Try not to die." Jeremy said before running off. The others looked at each other and smiled.

Ulrich cracked his knuckles. "Oh, I am going to _enjoy_ this." He drew his katana and sliced a rope dangling from the wall, causing a light to crash onto the floor. Lyna took her knife and sliced a slit into the hem of the dress. She pulled on it to elongate it, and then she used Gus' shoulders to hop onto the heads of the guests. Gus pointed his wand at the fountain, which then began to shoot its contents at the guests near it. Odd called out his claws and started to tear at the tablecloths. Yumi watched as the others raised Hell, and her eyes flashed to a chandelier.

She smirked. "Oh, I have _always_ wanted to do this." Yumi ran over to the rope that held it up and climbed it quickly. She waved her arms to catch Ulrich's attention and then motioned for him to loosen the rope. When he did, Yumi forced the chandelier to rock back and forth. When she was satisfied with that, she jumped off and slid down the nearest table, taking the dishes and tablecloth with her. When she stopped sliding, she threw her hands over her head.

Odd, who had been tearing at the tablecloth Yumi slid on, stood. "And she _sticks_ the landing!" Yumi smiled at Odd. He motioned for the crowd and said, "Now let's go help raise Hell."

A/N: Like I said before, just when you think that you can't hate her any more than you already did, Laurelei proves you wrong. We'll all understand if Jeremy kills her over what she did to Aelita. The teenage psyche is a very delicate thing. Any way you slice it, Laurelei is a bitch. On that note, I've got some new pictures on my DeviantArt account. There are a couple of pictures of Aelita and then one of Laurelei that even _I_ will understand if you print out to throw darts at.

Heck, if I had a dart board, I'd do the same thing.


	27. Chapter 27

_Chapter Twenty-Seven: Bright Eyes_

Jeremy sighed gruffly and leaned against the back of the elevator. Ligaya buzzed about, muttering something in a language he couldn't understand. He watched the pixie as it buzzed about the elevator, and it eventually flew over and landed on his nose. "_When we get there?_" It asked in annoyance, stamping its small foot on Jeremy's nose.

"We'll get there when we _get_ there!" Jeremy snapped, crossing his arms across his chest.

Ligaya stuck out its tongue and asked, "_Jeremy go right way?_"

He rolled his eyes before responding. "Yes, I'm going the right way! Laurelei's lair is the same level as her bedroom," He explained, and then added gruffly, "And if anyone in this god damn place knows where her bedroom is, it's _me._" There was an awkward silence before the elevator released a little 'ding' noise. Jeremy ran out of the elevator and turned to find that Ligaya wasn't following him. "Where are you going?" He asked, but then shrugged and ran for the door that led to Laurelei's lair. The door slid open and Jeremy held back a relieved sigh when he saw Aelita.

He ran forward and attempted to force open the door to the cage. Aelita looked at him for a moment, but then looked away without saying a word. Jeremy noticed as much but also said nothing, still struggling to open the door to the cage. Eventually, the elf found the silence to be worrisome and he started the conversation. "Aelita, you have absolutely no idea how happy I am to see that you're alright." Aelita looked at him, pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and looked away. Jeremy sighed and took a few steps back, pulling water from the air and slicing at the lock with it. "I'm going to kill her. You see if I don't." The elf boy hissed to himself, referring to Laurelei. He smirked when he managed to break through the lock. He took it off and opened the door. "Okay, c'mon, we shouldn't be here any longer than we need to be." Jeremy said to Aelita, offering her his hand.

Aelita, once again, simply looked at the elf before looking away.

He sighed, and he crawled inside the cage. Jeremy wrapped one arm around Aelita's back and under her arm, and then draped the other over her stomach. He dragged her over to the door and took the arm from her stomach and placed it under her knees. He lifted her up out of the cage, and he looked her in the eyes. "You're lighter than usual. When was the last time you ate something?" He asked.

"Uh…" Aelita said, the first thing she'd said since he found her.

"If you have to think about it, it was too long ago." Jeremy concluded, placing her gently on the floor. "When we get out of here, we'll stop at a restaurant or something. But we need to get out of here first."

Aelita nodded, but she didn't move right away. She glanced around the room, and her eyes fell on Laurelei's throne. She ran over to it and picked up her clothes, and she glanced to Jeremy nervously before simply folding the clothes and pulling on the boot. She held the clothing close to her chest before turning to go back to Jeremy.

"I thought I saw you come in." A bittersweet voice sang. Jeremy turned to find Laurelei leaning against the doorway, and she pulled the tie from her hair so it would fall over her shoulders. "Your friends are causing quite a riot upstairs. I wondered where you were, and I guess I was right." She said, walking towards him slowly. She dodged an incoming ice dagger, but the dagger did manage to tear a hole in her dress over her knee. She smirked at Jeremy, and she pushed a stray hair from her face. "Clearly you're upset."

Jeremy pulled water from the air and slashed at Laurelei repeatedly with it, which she dodged repeatedly. It only managed to slash at her dress from time to time, and Jeremy found it frustrating. "Sit down," He ordered, and when Laurelei rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something, he shouted, "_Sit down!_" The gancanagh watched him strangely as he repeated his order. His eyes were glowing pink, and when the order had left his mouth, she tensed and did as he said. "What did you do to her? I can see that she's bleeding and that she's been crying blood, too, so what happened to her?" Jeremy demanded, and Laurelei was no longer tense.

Standing, she began, "I just told her the truth…" Laurelei said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

Jeremy laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I'm sure. Your definition of the truth is shoving complete bullshit down someone's throat! What did you tell her?"

"That she was stupid, ugly and worthless." Laurelei shrugged. "Like I said, the truth."

"Like I said, bullshit." Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Why do you feel the need to damage people for the rest of their lives in a way that they can't ever fix? Why do you have to find what someone is afraid at and pick at it for hours on end? Why do you have to reach into someone's chest and flick at their heart?" He demanded, which bothered her immensely. She launched balls of darkness at him, which he dodged and lifted up his hands. The water puddles that had been left when he took his concentration off of them followed that motion for a moment, but when his eyes began to glow pink again and pink lightning flashed from his hands, the water collapsed back into its puddle. Jeremy's hair stood on-end and he pointed his fingers at Laurelei. The lightning shot itself at Laurelei, whose eyes widened considerably. She shrieked when it hit her, and the pink light faded from Jeremy's eyes as he stood still out of shock.

Aelita ran over to him, and he looked at the palms of his hands. The tips of his fingers were smoking. "I didn't know you could do that!" Aelita said with a smile.

"Neither did I," Jeremy said, blinking. A light clicked on in his head, and he unbuttoned the first two buttons on his shirt. He took Aelita's necklace from around his neck and smiled nervously as he held it out to her. "Before I forget, this is yours."

She smiled and took the necklace. Her smile vanished nearly instantly, and she draped it around her neck. Jeremy turned his attention back to a puddle of water, and when Laurelei stirred and sat up, he wrapped the water around her. As it spiraled upwards, it froze, and it stopped in a point just under the gancanagh's chin. She held her head back so it wouldn't puncture her skin. Jeremy took another stream of water and froze it as well, and he almost dug it into Laurelei's heart. "Jeremy, stop!" Aelita said, grabbing his arm and making him loose his concentration. The water melted and gravity brought it down over Laurelei's head and torso. Jeremy looked at Aelita in annoyance. "Don't kill her," Aelita begged.

"Why not? She's caused nothing but pain and misery for us. Give me one good reason why I should let her live!" Jeremy said.

"Because without her, you and I never would have met." Aelita said. "And even though what she's done has caused pain and suffering, I'm grateful that she did it."

Jeremy looked at Aelita for a long time. He sighed gruffly, and he motioned for the water that kept Laurelei bound to melt. The gancanagh sighed with relief and began to stand, but Aelita walked over to her. "Hold it," She ordered, and she got very close to Laurelei's face. "Just because I'm grateful for what you did, it doesn't mean that you're forgiven. If you ever try to hurt Jeremy or any one of my friends again, you _will_ answer to me." Aelita warned. "_Personally._"

Aelita looked to Jeremy, who motioned for them to leave, and Ligaya buzzed in as they did so. In its hands it struggled to hold Aelita's other boot, and she took it and pulled it on. The pixie smiled and flew around Aelita's head before landing on her shoulder. The trio headed for the elevator, the ride silent. Aelita looked over the elf and noticed his suit. "What's with the—" She began.

"Suit? The Xanadu is celebrating the formal declaration of war on the world. The others are at the party creating a distraction." Jeremy interrupted, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

Aelita's eyes widened, and she muttered, "On the world…?"

"Well, most of it. Every country that has a representative in the United Nations, which is all but two."

"Still, do they think they could win?"

"The Xanadu is the largest organization of magical creatures in the world. They've allied the vampires of Lyoko. Together, they've got an army that's probably equal in size, and then magic combined with science gives them the upper hand." The elevator dinged, and they walked out of the elevator. When they entered the ballroom, their eyes widened and Jeremy muttered, "A bit of a riot, indeed."

There were small fires about the room, and most of the guests were soaked. Everything was in disarray, and it looked as if barbarians had looted the place. Jeremy looked and caught Lyna's attention, and he motioned to her that they needed to leave. In turn, she motioned for the others, and then ran to the trio by running on the heads and shoulders of the guests. The gang gathered quickly, and evacuated as quickly as they gathered.

Once outside, something caught Gus' attention. "That's my van!"

* * *

Gus pulled up to the bank. They'd chosen to take the van, partly because Jeremy wanted to take Aelita to a restaurant but mostly because the airport had a lot of security. Gus pulled out his wand and short-circuited the security cameras and then stepped out to change the license plate. Jeremy and Lyna stepped out of the van and walked over the ATM. Lyna watched blankly as her brother emptied the entire contents of his bank account. "Okay, I've got…" Jeremy began, counting the bills. "…seventeen dollars."

"Seventeen dollars? Are you joking?" Lyna asked. "What happened?"

"I bought the plane tickets, if you recall." Jeremy responded. Lyna rolled her eyes and took out her knife. "Uh… what are you doing?" Lyna ignored him and dig her knife into the top of the ATM. "_Lyna!_" Jeremy shouted as his sister opened the ATM like a can. When she peeled off the area she'd cut into, she reached inside it and pulled out money*. She threw it over Jeremy's head.

"Look! It's raining cash!" Lyna smiled, and Jeremy smacked himself in the head with his hand.

"This is a federal offense…" He muttered.

"Oh, shut up. Seventeen dollars won't get you anywhere. Besides, it's going to be dark in the middle of the night, and none of us are going to want to drive, so we'll have to rent a couple of hotel rooms. Seventeen dollars won't get you anywhere in that case, either."

"Point taken."

* * *

Lyna was on the phone with Kya, Yumi brushed her hair and Aelita watched both of them. Other than the elf girl speaking with her mother over the phone, the room was quiet. Lyna looked over to Aelita and noticed 'worthless' written on her shirt, and she opened a drawer. She eventually found a permanent marker and removed the cap. She walked over to Aelita and scribbled the 'less' out of 'worthless' and replaced it with 'a lot more than you.' She said good-bye to her mother and then looked to the other two girls. "I'm going to take a shower. Behave." Lyna smiled, picking up the oversized tee-shirt that they'd bought to replace their clothing. Yumi had already changed into hers, but Aelita hadn't.

There was a knock on the hotel door, and Yumi called out for the person to come in. Jeremy entered with his black jacket thrown over one shoulder, and Aelita smiled quickly before it vanished again. Jeremy nodded in acknowledgement of both girls before sitting down next to Aelita. "Are you feeling alright?" He asked, and she nodded. "It's been a rough day, hasn't it?" He pushed a hair from her face as she nodded again. Jeremy laughed and said, "You look like you're about to fall asleep."

"I wouldn't be surprised if she did," Yumi said, and Jeremy looked to her. "She said that she hasn't gotten any sleep since Laurelei put her in that cage."

"Yeah, we've all been there." Jeremy smiled. Aelita, too, smiled gently. "I really do insist you lie down." He said, but she hesitated. He rolled his eyes with a smile and leaned back onto the pillows. He crossed his arms behind his head as he did so, and he placed his jacket on the floor. Aelita placed her head slowly down, and she slipped on arm under the pillow and the other in front of her, holding it down so it wouldn't block her view of the elf boy lying next to her. Jeremy looked at the ceiling for a moment before noticing that Aelita had her eyes fixated on him intently, and he looked at her with a warm smile. "I'm serious, you look half ready to fall asleep. Yumi, do you mind if I turn off this light?"

Yumi shrugged. Jeremy reached over to the light that was on and flicked it off. Besides the light from the bathroom, the room was completely dark. "'Night. I'll see you in the morning, okay?" Jeremy said to Aelita, who, in response, reached over to him and grabbed his white shirt with a very upset look on her face. "No, I'm serious. I'll see you in the morning." Jeremy said, and he reached for her hand. She moved it before he could, and she wrapped her arm over him and then slid her other arm under him. She gripped his shirt again, obviously to communicate to him her thoughts about him leaving. He sighed. "Fine. I give. You win. Well played."

Aelita smiled triumphantly, and unlike her smiles before, it didn't fade. She didn't look at him, however, and she brought her hand closer to her without removing it from Jeremy's person. She gripped his shirt tightly in her hand, which was ridiculously small in comparison. Yumi laughed. "Face it, Jeremy, you can't beat Team Estrogen!" She poked fun at him, which was responded to by Jeremy sticking out his tongue at her. "Can you blame her, though? Aelita knows what she wants and she's holding onto it." She looked over the duo and smiled. "Or, more of, holding onto _him._"

"Oh, ha, ha; you're frigging _hilarious._" Jeremy said. He looked over to Aelita, who still appeared to be on the verge of awake and asleep, and she still wouldn't look at Jeremy. He smiled and took one of his arms from behind his head. He struggled to adjust, and then slipped his arm underneath her neck and rested his hand on her shoulder. Jeremy closed his eyes.

* * *

"Jeremy. _Jeremy._ Jeremy, you lazy bum; open your eyes."

The elf boy raised his eyebrows, unable to open his blue eyes because the light from the bathroom hurt. Eventually, he could open his eyes, he saw Lyna standing over him, her hair and ears dripping wet. He took his free hand and rubbed his eyes underneath his glasses. "Lyna, could you get me my jacket, please…?" He murmured, stretching. Lyna bent over and picked up his jacket. He took it from her and dug around in the pockets, eventually pulling out an elf doll. Jeremy gently uncurled Aelita's fingers from his shirt and placed the doll in her hands. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled her arms in. "Thanks," He looked to his sister before pulling back the covers on the hotel bed. Jeremy tucked Aelita's legs underneath the covers and then pulled them up to her shoulders.

Lyna smiled as Jeremy sat down on the edge of the bed. He licked his thumb and rubbed the blood stains from Aelita's face. "What are you doing in here?" Lyna asked, smoothing her red oversized tee-shirt before sitting next to her brother.

"Aelita wouldn't let me leave." Jeremy laughed as he spoke. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "She hasn't really spoken all day."

"I noticed. Do you know what's wrong with her?" Lyna asked, curling her legs up inside her tee-shirt.

"Laurelei told her that she was stupid, ugly and worthless. I think she abused her while doing so, too, because she was bleeding when I found her."

"Oh, dear _god._ You killed her, right? Or at least kicked her ass?"

"I kicked her ass, yes, but I didn't kill her. I wanted to, though."

"Then why didn't you? That's not normally an action you ignore."

"Aelita told me not to. I appreciate that, too."

"Why would she stop you?"

"I don't really understand, but _I_ wasn't going to disobey her…"

"And you appreciate it… why?"

"The last thing I need is another life on my conscience."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

"You're a real sweetheart, you know that, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you'll do anything to make Aelita happy. Any girl you love, really. I remember that you used to do the same thing for Laurelei, except, you know, the opposite."

"Lyna…"

"No, I mean it. The only real difference here is that you aren't having sex with Aelita." She paused suddenly. "You… aren't having sex with Aelita, right?"

"No, I'm not."

"Okay, good."

"But even then, it's not the same."

"Yeah, the whole love-versus-lust thing. Whatever."

There was a pause. "You always seem to know just what to bring." Lyna said, pointing to the elf doll.

"Of course. I think ahead. I always think ahead. How else do you think we survived this long?"

"Well, I know that we stayed alive this long by moving around Europe rapidly for nine months while you were in a virtual coma."

"Alright, shut up about that."

"Never!"

"Shh!" Jeremy placed a finger on his lips, and Lyna nodded sheepishly. He smiled weakly and rubbed his sister's head. "'Night, K.K,"

"'Night, B.B,"

* * *

Aelita rolled onto her back in her sleep, but when she turned again, her back began to sting and she sat up, awake. She felt something drip down her back, and she jumped out of bed. She looked around for Jeremy, and when she didn't see him, she sighed in both relief and sadness. The pause had allowed for whatever was dripping down her back to roll down her legs. Aelita limped over to the bathroom, flicked on the light and closed the door. Lyna heard the door click shut, and she sat up. She was lying in the recliner, and she saw the light from underneath the bathroom door. She looked to Yumi, who was fast asleep, and then looked to where Aelita had been sleeping.

Lyna stood up and walked over to the bed, and she could see a dark stain on the sheets and carpet in the darkness. She walked over to the door to the bathroom and knocked on the door. "Aelita? Are you alright in there?"

There was a muffled whimper before she heard Aelita call back, "Yeah… I'm fine."

"Do you need me to get you anything?" Lyna asked, not really understanding the situation.

"No!" The response came too fast. "No," Aelita corrected herself.

Lyna huffed. "Ready or not, here I come," She said, opening the door before Aelita could respond again. The elf girl blinked when she saw the human girl. Aelita had removed her shirt to examine the bandages beneath it, which had come loose. "Why do you have…?" Lyna began, but she was unable to finish her sentence.

"Bandages?" Aelita finished for her, and the elf nodded. "My wings were amputated. As you can probably imagine, there was a lot of blood, and the scientists who did it wrapped the bandages to stop the bleeding."

"They did a pretty shitty job about it, too," Lyna noticed, and she held up one finger. "I'll be right back." Aelita watched as the elf left the bathroom. When she returned, she had her medical tape in hand and unraveled it a bit. "Okay, hold still; I'm going to change these bandages." Lyna placed the medical tape on the counter and removed the metal pieces holding Aelita's bandages in place. She gently removed the bandages and at first, said nothing. She didn't even take a chance to look at the wounds before grabbing the medical tape, but when she did, she dropped the tape and muttered something in a language Aelita didn't understand.

"What was that?" She asked, turning her head to look at the elf girl.

Lyna shook her head. "Uh… Hebrew."

"You speak Hebrew?"

"Yeah, I'm Jewish. Happy Hanukah." Lyna responded with an eyebrow raised. "You got a problem with that?"

"No, no; carry on." Aelita covered her mishap. She paused for a moment. "Is Jeremy Jewish?"

"Speaking of whom, I'm going to go get him." Lyna said, ignoring the question, and Aelita grabbed her shoulder to stop her.

"No, please, don't go get Jeremy!" The human girl begged.

"Why not, Aelita? I can see you bones!" Lyna said, and she thought for a moment. "That isn't saying much, seeing as how freaking _puny_ you are, but I can see them, like, for _real._"

"I believe you, but I'm afraid that he'll get mad about me not telling him sooner."

"Rather him get mad than you die of blood loss!"

"Lyna, _please._"

Lyna looked at the human girl, and then sighed. "Fine. But when he finds out, I'm going to act surprised and say, 'hey, I'm just as surprised as you are!'." She paused for a moment, and the human girl turned again to face the mirror. "And he _will_ find out, you know. He's got a way with these things."

"I know." Aelita nodded. There was a silence. Aelita turned to look at the elf girl again, but she saw that she'd left the room again. As soon as Aelita did so, Lyna returned with the elf doll in hand.

Lyna handed the doll to Aelita. "Here, hold this. Those idiots who put the bandages on you in the first place didn't clean the wound at all. You're lucky it's not infected." She said, grabbing a washcloth and dampening it. "Okay, big breath. This may sting." Lyna said as she rubbed the wound gently. Aelita cringed, and a blood-water mixture slid down her back. When the elf girl finished, she wiped it off carefully with a towel. "Okay, hold still." Lyna said, and she began to wrap the new bandages around the human girl.

Aelita had said nothing while she did so, but when she began to wrap the bandages, she repeated her earlier question. "So, uh, is Jeremy Jewish?"

"Why do you need to know?" Lyna asked.

"I don't. I was just wondering."

"I don't even know if he's religious, okay? All I know is that he celebrates all the Jewish holidays with our parents and I and he marks 'Jewish' on all the religion questions. But he doesn't speak or understand Hebrew, and he doesn't know very much about Judaism."

"So… then why—"

"People who aren't Jewish but marry Jewish people are required to convert to Judaism. We celebrate Christmas, too, but only because it's so commercial." Lyna interrupted her. "So I don't really know. Ask him that."

"Um, can I ask you another question?"

"Be my guest."

"Where are you from?"

"I was born in Wyoming, but I live in West Virginia."

"No, your ancestors."

"North America."

"So, you're—"

"Native American, yes."

"And you're Jewish."

"I'm in a minority, okay? God! Racist much!"  
"I'm not—"

"I'm _teasing,_ Lady Einstein."

* * *

*I seriously doubt that ATMs have the money in them in real life. But, in a world of people with pointy ears and dragonfly wings, who gives a crap about realism?

* * *

A/N: Laurelei should feel really grateful that Aelita is a good person. Had she not stopped Jeremy, Laurelei would be a bloody corpse. Also, I'm sorry if this went by sort of fast. Just wanted to get the action down. I still feel really bad for Aelita, though. I'm all like, 'I've been so cruel to you!' …

I gotta stop doing that.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Connection Infection

Lyna opened the door and stepped out of the bathroom, Aelita close behind. The elf girl helped pull the human girl's shirt over her head as they walked. The light had been turned on and Yumi was sitting up on the bed, her arms crossed and eyes narrow with suspicion. The other two stopped in their tracks, and for a moment, there was no noise as they exchanged looks. Yumi tilted her head to one side before asking, "Am I missing something?"

The response, at first, was confused. Aelita mumbled 'yes' while Lyna disagreed with 'no' at the same time, of which was followed by the two looking at each other. They switched answers but still spoke at the same time, and once more they looked at one another. After a short moment, they directed their attention back to Yumi and agreed on, "Maybe,"

Yumi raised one eyebrow, and she stood. "Is that so?" She asked, walking over to the two girls. She looked from Aelita to Lyna, and for a long time, the two female creatures stared at each other, the elf of which eventually cracked a smile. Yumi looked back to Aelita. "So, what's really going on, Aelita?" The demigoddess asked, and the human girl looked down and began to twiddle her thumbs.

There was a silence that followed, and it very quickly became awkward.

Aelita suddenly looked up to Yumi and explained everything in a hurry, her words jumbling together and making it virtually impossible to understand what she'd said. The demigoddess could only barely recognize it as French, let alone what she'd said or even the nature of what she'd said. Yumi looked to Lyna, who shrugged. "I know what she said, but that's only because I know what's going on. What she said literally I have no idea on."

The demigoddess placed her hands on the human girl's shoulders, but when she continued to speak in such a way that Yumi had no idea what she was saying, she placed a finger on Aelita's lips. "Slow down." She said, and for a moment, Yumi didn't move. When she did, Aelita took a deep breath.

Once again, what she said was so slurred together that there was no clue as to what she was saying until she pointed to the elf girl and said, "Lyna onto you."

Lyna became flustered, but pushed her hair from her face and explained calmly, "Laurelei ordered the amputation of Aelita's wings not too long ago, and she's got bandages to cover the wounds that were left. When something rubs against them, they start to bleed very easily, so when she turned in her sleep, the wounds began to bleed." She turned to Aelita and lifted her shirt so Yumi could see the bandages. "She got up and went into the bathroom, and when I saw the blood, I followed her in. I replaced the bandages." She crossed her arms triumphantly. "And _that's_ what you missed."

Yumi blinked in shock for a moment, but then stood up straight and asked, "Did you tell Jeremy?"

"No, she doesn't want us to tell him." Lyna shrugged.

"Oh," Yumi said, and she was quiet for a moment. "Well, if that's the case, excuse me." She walked past the other two girls.

"Where are you going?" Lyna asked.

"Where do you think I'm going? I'm going to get Jeremy!" Yumi said, and Lyna ran past her and blocked the demigoddess from the door.

The next several moments were spent by Yumi trying to get to the door while Lyna did everything she could to do the opposite. The demigoddess threw up her hands and said, "Fine. Whatever. What's your game plan to getting rid of the wounds?"

Lyna blinked. "Game… plan?" She asked, and then added, "Well, nothing, until Jeremy finds out on his own, really. We could ask Gus, too, I guess, but magic has unknown side effects and lord only knows what may happen to her…"

"What could happen that's worse than what's already happened?" Yumi protested.

"Um, let's see, the wounds could bleed harder, or maybe something even worse, like, um… the wounds looked healed but they're actually just going to open up again…" Lyna brainstormed. "Besides, Aelita asked me not to tell Jeremy, and I told her that I wouldn't. You've got to do the same."

Aelita listened as the creatures spoke, sitting down on the end of the bed and closing her eyes. She fell back, and she was still for a moment before opening her eyes slightly and turning her head so it faced the window. Outside, she could see the lights of the city at night; everything from the headlights on the cars and the few lights in office buildings with late workers. The sounds of the city, too, were clear to hear as the cars drove by at high speeds, but there were no sounds of nature, excluding the wind. Small, delicate snowflakes hit the window and melted upon impact. She noticed how peaceful it seemed, but the cars and the wind drowned out her thoughts.

They were human inventions; she realized, cars were. As were the tall office buildings and the lights, even the bed that she relaxed on. Yet creatures on Earth used them as well, even though the demise of the human race was being planned by the majority of creatures. Aelita knew that the mention of the small things that benefited the creatures would not stop them, and she knew that there was little chance that humans stood a chance against them. She knew that the Xanadu and their allies were preying on the settled anger of creatures that was caused by humans constantly telling them that they did not exist, but she only hoped that once the humans acknowledged the existence that the creatures would have accomplished what they'd wanted and would cease fighting.

Aelita looked to the creatures, and her thoughts—though she struggled to hear them—wandered to the upbringing of her friends. Odd, at one point, had been human, which explained his feelings, and the others had been raised among the human race. Excluding Ulrich, but what he knew of the human race was based off of what his friends and led him to believe, and not much was known about who he'd been before he died.

Yumi and Lyna said good-night to Aelita, and then the demigoddess clicked off the light. Aelita could see Ligaya lying on the bedside table, its light gone as it slept. She guessed that the pixie had known her before she'd 'died,' and during that period, humans were in a position of power, and she hoped that it was a good thing.

Aelita crawled up to the top of the bed and looked up at the popcorn ceiling. She wondered how many Earth years had gone by since her family first came to power. Ten years had passed on Earth since they lost power, but many more had to have been spent in her entire heritage. As that passed through her head, she wondered if Earth and Lyoko had ever been the same. The Earth was billions of years old. Lyoko, even if they'd been connected, was older than that because of the time gap. She had no idea how long magical creatures had been without a single leader before her family came along, but it wouldn't have been logical that her family had been in power since a few years after the dawn of time.

If they'd never been connected, it wasn't logical that humans would've even existed on Lyoko.

If they'd never been connected, it wasn't logical that they could _ever_ be connected.

But Passage Towers and portals were used to get between Earth and Lyoko. As that passed through her mind, Ligaya turned over in its sleep. Its elbow hit the power button on the remote, which turned on the television. Aelita scrambled to get the remote out from under the pixie, but the reporter on the news channel that was playing caught her attention instead.

"Near a small town in West Virginia, a strange structure appeared overnight. Workers had been trying to demolish it for weeks when pale soldiers appeared from it, calling themselves vampires. Hundreds died in the short time that they were present, but they disappeared only a day after they arrived. The structure had shown no other signs of this strange activity for nearly ten days.

"Earlier today, just as workers were about to begin the scheduled demolition, the structure produced animals that seem completely surreal. They appeared to be dragons of various shapes, sizes and colors from different cultures from around the globe. Some had wings, some breathed fire, some seemed juvenile in comparison, and witnesses say that there were most likely one hundred or more of them in total.

"They all took off for the east, and while witnesses say that they were struggling to comprehend what was happening, a young girl appeared from the structure. She had a red juvenile dragon-like animal on her shoulder, and it is said that the girl tried to follow the animals as they headed east. Her identity is unknown, and local police are holding her in custody. The structure, which had been glowing red shortly before the appearance of the animals, lost the glow it had and fell, leaving a cylindrical indent in the snow. Soon after, it vanished.

"We've received reports from various countries of the world that similar structures have appeared. They are reportedly one in each of the following regions; the Himalayas, the Sahara Desert, the Amazon Rain Forest, the Taymyr Peninsula, the Redwood Forest, Death Valley, Antarctica and the Blue Mountains. NASA has also provided a satellite image of the Atlantic Ocean where a large group of islands has appeared, and they appear to be moving. It is unknown if the incidents are related, but they all seem to be supernatural in their timing." The reporter signed off, and Aelita clicked off the television.

She paused for a moment. "That was oddly convenient." She stated. She tilted her head, thinking about what had been said in the darkness. When the reporter had been speaking of the girl, her picture had been displayed on-screen, as it often is when talking of criminals or missing children. Her skin was tanned and her eyes were golden, like a Passage Knight's, but her curly red hair had been cropped short in a messy manner. Aelita noted that the girl resembled Suzy in a way, but the girl appeared to be about twelve years of age, and Suzy had been thirteen the last time Aelita had seen her. Time gap or not, she knew that it was impossible for Suzy to have aged backwards.

"But, dragons?" Aelita spoke to herself, pulling the covers over her shivering shoulders. Ligaya had said that dragons were gone, and while she had met one dragon and found the egg of the dragon as well, the news reporter had said hundreds. "Are they still alive?" She asked the darkness, but as she expected, there was no response.

Aelita drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Look, I don't know what you're saying!" Miranda snapped, and her dragon crawled around her neck. There was a pale blue blanket draped over her shoulders, and a cup of hot cocoa sat on the metal table. She wore an outfit that was improper for mid-December—it was made of brown cloth that had been torn and sewed together repeatedly for a shirt that only covered her maturing breasts and a skirt that covered only the top of her legs—and her legs were painted in green vine-like designs that spun into dragons on her thighs. However, the green paint on her feet had mostly been washed away when she hit the snow.

It wasn't that she liked wearing such revealing clothes or painted designs that attracted attention to her legs but that Marumi Village was usually so hot that she could wear nothing else. It did get cooler sometimes, but it had been summer only minutes earlier for her.

The police officer rubbed his temple, and he looked to the ceiling. "Such grammar," He muttered, but he faked a smile and returned his attention to Miranda. "Okay, hotshot, let me ask you one more time; where is your mommy?"

Miranda rolled her eyes. "How old do I look to you, five?" She demanded, but crossed her arms. "Let me ask _you_ one more time; which mommy are you talking about?"

"The one that's usually taking care of you!" The officer exclaimed in annoyance.

"Can you be a _bit_ more specific?" Miranda asked. "You know what? Forget it. My mother is with my ina, and I don't know where either of them are. Why is it cold?"

The officer paused for a moment. "It's winter."

"It's summer."

"What planet are you from?"

"My hope is this one."

"What happened?"

"And by that you mean…?"

"How did you get here?"

"Oh!" Miranda exclaimed suddenly. "That's simple! There's this cave up in the mountains where I go to play more often than not, and today I was pretending I was an explorer! So, way back in the really deep part of the cave, I found this little cave painting thingy, and on one side, there was this blue, green and white sphere, and on the other, there was a blue sphere in the middle with white, green, brown and yellow dots around it. There were these two pegs in-between them, and there was this brown hair on the floor of the cave, and so I thought that the hair was used to connect the pegs. But as it turns out, the hair wasn't long enough, so I opened up this open-necklace thingamajig and pulled out one of the hairs of my godmother." She paused to ask the officer not to ask. "So I tied my godmother's hair around the peg and all of a sudden the pictures start glowing and moving towards each other and I'm all like 'whoa' and I totally skedaddle from that cave, you know? Once I'm outside I see these dragons up in the sky and I'm all like 'double whoa' so I follow them and try to get them to wait and then I got here."

There was a moment where neither of them said anything. "And that's what happened." Miranda added.

The officer looked at her for a moment. "I… I don't follow." He admitted.

Miranda sighed and looked the officer over, trying to find the slightest hint of misunderstanding on his face. She could then see that he understood, but it hadn't made any sense. She opened her mouth to say something, but her eyes fell to his identification. "What does that say?" She asked, pointing to the patch that his last name printed on it.

The officer laughed. "What's the matter; are you too lazy to read?" He asked sarcastically.

"No," Miranda said, hurt, but the officer laughed, not realizing that the pain was real. "I can't read." She admitted quietly, wrapping her nearly-frozen fingers around the cup of hot cocoa. "We don't have writing where I come from. My mother tried to teach me to read, but vampires can walk around during the day now and they kicked up the dirt whenever she was caught."

The officer stopped laughing, and he said, "It says 'Hayes.' That's my last name."

Miranda looked up to Officer Hayes. "Why does that sound familiar?" A light clicked on in her head. "Oh! That's right! Lukas!"

"Lukas?"

"Yes. Do you know him?"

"I do. He's my son. My wife and I adopted him when we lived in New Orleans."

"My mother knew him. She said he made her uncomfortable."

"How'd he do that?"

"Well, I think Lukas liked my mother, but she likes my ina, so…"

"And your ina is your…"

"She's a pixie."

Officer Hayes blinked. "Oh… kay then."

Miranda crossed her arms. "What? Do you have a problem with…" She paused. "What was the term Mother used? Oh, yeah. Lesbians?"

"No, it's just—"

"Actually, I've got no idea if Ina is a lesbian. My mother is, though…" Miranda's dragon purred and wrapped itself around her neck. She looked as it and adjusted the bone mask it wore over its tiny face. "Mister Hayes?"

"Yes, little girl?"

"I think I messed up."

* * *

"Ligaya, you need to get up." Aelita mumbled the next morning, and she turned to look at the pixie. It was still asleep, but it was tossing and turning, which was unusual for it. The pixie was usually a sound sleeper. Aelita reached out and touched it gently, but its form spazzed like a computer screen when it was infected by a virus. She recoiled immediately, and when she did so, the pixie's form became solid again. She reached out for it again, but instead of spazzing again, Ligaya simply vanished.

Aelita sat up promptly, and she looked to Yumi, who was pulling on her boots. "Yumi, have you seen Ligaya?" She asked, taking her own clothes from the drawer she'd placed them in and pulling them over her head.

Yumi looked at her. "Wasn't it asleep—" She turned and pointed towards the bedside table, but blinked when she saw that the pixie wasn't there. "Huh. Maybe it already woke up. Ligaya's got to be around here somewhere, so keep looking." Aelita nodded under her sweater, but she was slow to actually pull it over her head. Her shoulder blades stung like bees, and when she finally managed to dress, she opened the door to find Ulrich standing on the other side of the doorway. Yumi looked up to him and smiled. "Morning, Ulrich!"

"Morning, Yumi," The golem greeted without missing a beat. He looked back to Aelita. "Pardon me." He said, and Aelita moved so he could get by.

"Have you seen Ligaya?" She asked as he walked by. Ulrich looked at her and shook his head. Aelita huffed and walked out of the room to the other side of the hallway and knocked on the door. Odd answered it, and she could see that he struggled to pull his hat over his cat ears. She asked him the same question as she did Ulrich and Yumi.

He shook his head, and she walked under his arms to enter the room. Gus nodded at Aelita to signal that he acknowledged her, but otherwise he didn't seem too pleased. She saw why soon after. Jeremy was fixing the wizard's tie. "This is why I didn't wear one." The elf boy muttered, but he finished soon after he said that. He looked to Aelita and smiled. "Good morning, Aelita." Jeremy greeted warmly, and he looked down to his shirt's buttons, of which he hadn't even started buttoning, let alone finished. He did, however, have his jacket pulled over it.

Aelita smiled briefly, but she pulled in her lip as she watched him button his shirt.

She shook her head suddenly, and she asked him the same question.

Jeremy looked up to her as he fumbled with the buttons. "No, sorry." He apologized, but he said nothing else for a moment. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Yes, I am, thank you," Aelita lied through her teeth.

"That's good," Jeremy smiled, and he pushed up his glasses. Aelita was secretly grateful that he hadn't noticed that she'd lied to him.

However, she noted, she suddenly wanted a hug.

"I really wish we'd put more thought into this." The elf boy said suddenly, catching Aelita's attention. She looked at him, and he straightened his jacket. She observed that his clothes looked slept-in, and she couldn't help but wonder why he had needed to button his shirt if he had, in fact, slept in it. Aelita blushed very hard when she realized that she wasn't complaining. "None of us like wearing these clothes, but we have to because none of us remembered to pack extras." Jeremy smiled as he looked to Aelita. "Except you, of course."

Aelita smiled, too, but she didn't know why. She hadn't remembered to pack extra clothes—Laurelei had provided clothes that would help her achieve her goal. She thought about what Laurelei said for a moment, and she looked to Jeremy after. He seemed distracted, and she placed a hand on his shoulder. His eyes, which had seemed far away, snapped back to reality, and he glanced to Aelita. "I'm sorry, I've…" He paused, and he looked to the window. "…I've just got this really weird urge to go east." Aelita was stunned for a moment when he said that but she tried to hide it when he returned his look to her. "But we aren't going east. We're headed south."

The elf boy headed for the door, and the human girl sub-consciously grabbed his hand. He looked back to her, and she was at loss for words. She smiled and brushed a stray hair from his face, and he moved his hand so he could place his fingers in the spaces in-between hers.

"Good morning!" Lyna greeted suddenly, shocking the two teens for a moment, and Jeremy pulled his hand from Aelita's. The other elf walked in with a platter of food, and she smiled at them. "Who wants breakfast?" She asked warmly, but her disposition darkened with confusion as the teens glared at her. Lyna looked between them quickly and asked, "Am I interrupting something?"

"No," Aelita responded bitterly, grabbing a piece of toast and biting into it sourly. "Have you seen Ligaya?" She asked soon after.

Lyna thought for a moment. "Uh…" Lyna voiced her thought process. "Wait, wait, it's coming to me…" She announced, dropping the platter and placing her hands on her temples. "Yes!" She shrugged suddenly with a smile, and after picking up the platter, she shoved a piece of toast in Jeremy's mouth and began to leave.

"Where?" Aelita demanded, not pleased.

"Oh. You didn't ask me where!" Lyna defended herself, almost dropping the platter again. "It's outside, sitting on the roof of Gus' van. It seems sort of distracted." She said, balancing the platter on her head with a determined look. "Now, did I seriously not interrupt anything or were you just saying that because I did interrupt something but you wanted food?"

Aelita ignored the question and walked past her, running out to the van in her bare feet. Ligaya, like Lyna had said, was sitting on the van, its eyes fixated on the eastern horizon. It had no light, like it usually did, and its stare was blank. "_East,_" It said, otherwise not moving. "_I must go east,_" It continued, and Aelita tried to get it down. It began to glow yellow and flew a few feet east, but then it noticed Aelita. It flew about her head for a moment before waving and flying towards the east.

She didn't move for a long time. "Ligaya…?" She called out, her eyes not moving from the eastern sky. Ligaya did not return. Aelita rubbed her arms and leaned against the van. She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear and looked away, her thoughts wandering. She heard someone speak to her, but she didn't hear what they said. She looked up to Jeremy, and he said something else, but Aelita didn't hear what he said and she ran into his arms and began to cry.

* * *

Ligaya flew down and placed its fingers in the cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It flew back up again towards the clouds and dodged an airplane. It was stunned for a moment, but it flew to the windows and looked inside. A small child looked at the pixie in awe, and it waved to them. Ligaya looked down to the ocean and saw the islands that made up the Earth's form of Lyoko. The pixie couldn't help but wonder who was stupid enough to reconnect the two, but it dived down. It buzzed around near the ground of a village, and it flew up a bit to avoid getting lost in the grass. It buzzed around taller blades of grass and it smiled when the forest became visible.

It greeted the returning pixie.

"_Ligaya,_

_Ligaya,_

_Ligaya,_

_Ligaya,_

_Ligaya,_

_Welcome home._"

"_Forest!_" Ligaya exclaimed happily, but its happiness was short lived. The other lights—pixies—were nowhere to be seen. It looked about, but saw nothing. "_What going on?_" It asked the forest.

It responded.

"_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders took your family._

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders,_

_Intruders took our family._"

Ligaya paused, stunned. A net of some kind attacked it, and a pale hand removed it. Ligaya looked into the greedy eyes of a vampire, and the vampire then placed it in a glass jar. The jar was capped, and Ligaya pounded on it. The jar was stacked on another jar, and the pixie was soon out of breath. It sat against the glass sadly, and someone caught its attention. The pixie turned and caught the frightened stare of another pixie. Ligaya looked to the other jars that surrounded the one that it sat inside, and in those jars as well sat pixies. The combined light of the pixies created a heart-breaking blue.

"_Aelita,_" Ligaya muttered, holding back tears that would not come. "_I sorry._"

* * *

A/N: I'm so sorry this took forever. School started two days ago. Now it's Labor Day Weekend, so I plan to get my groove thing on when it comes to this! Oh, P.S: vampires are evil. You probably already knew that, but just wanted to remind you so you'll fear that bump that goes 'bump' in the night. *evil laugh* What? That wasn't me.


	29. Chapter 29

_Chapter Twenty-Nine: Look at the Pictures, Answer the Questions that Follow_

The road trip had taken a few days, but eventually the gang had returned. Aelita stood in Lyna's bedroom, which was much different that Jeremy's. It was like a sauna inside, most likely due to the elf girl's power over fire, but otherwise, it wasn't much different than a normal teenager's bedroom. Her bed wasn't made, and small clips of old newspapers hung framed on the walls along with the American flag, a Cherokee Nation poster, a large tapestry featuring Native American nomads and the Star of David, and a framed picture of Doctor Martin Luther King. The walls were painted red and the carpet almost looked like dried blood. There was an alarm clock and a fuzzy rug that made it seem like there was a massive hole in her floor. The floor was littered with stray papers and clothes.

Aelita hadn't been aware of how different their bedrooms were. Lyna's stained wooden dressers were cluttered with paper and curios, one of which appeared to be a picture her, Jeremy, Gus, Ulrich, Yumi and Odd inside of a snow globe and another a book of photos that seemed to be ordered chronologically, while Aelita's would have been littered with books she'd read, journals she'd written in from cover to cover and the things that she'd collected and preserved since before she'd fallen ill. There'd been trays, lamps and frilly things, but she'd never really gotten the chance to decorate her room herself. At least, she realized, Lyna's room was cluttered with things she'd seen and collected herself on the gang's travels. The room looked about as loud and obnoxious but strangely loveable as the elf who lived in it.

In comparison, the only things that looked like Aelita in her bedroom was the pink coloring, torn leaves, broken acorns, flattened pinecones and disembodied turtle shells that she kept in a sealed box in the darkness of her closet.

The human girl rubbed her arms and ignored the thought.

She leaned forward and examined one of the framed newspaper clippings. In bolded text across the top, it read 'NADU CLAN TIM.' _Xanadu Clan Times, _Aelita concluded, and she noticed the picture. Two children stood in it, holding each other's hands over their heads and smiling like oblivious idiots. The first was elfin, had darker skin than the other, and its hair was braided over their shoulders. The second was also elfin, rounded glasses, and its pale hair was messy, like it had run through a wind machine. They stood in front of an arena that Aelita had only seen once before, and the light clicked on in her head.

The arena was in one of the Xanadu's headquarters. The children were Jeremy and Lyna when they were eleven. The headline beneath the picture read 'SIBLINGS TAKE ARENA BY STORM,' and the article told about how the elfin siblings were taking down opponents' light years out of their weight class. Aelita began to worry in spite of herself, wondering why Lyna had framed—or even saved, for that matter—newspaper clippings of a time shortly before their lives began to spin out of control upon discovering the global conspiracy the Xanadu had in store for humans.

"Found it!" Lyna shouted suddenly, making Aelita jump. The elf girl's hand shot up from the other side of the bed, and she held a manila envelope in it. She hopped onto the bed and proceeded to open it. She paused when the human girl did nothing, but then smiled and patted the bed. "Come, come, I shall not bite." Lyna laughed, and Aelita sat down on the bed. "Do you remember when I told you that I would send you letters?"

Aelita had to think for a moment, but then remembered the day that Jeremy had to leave. It was months earlier, it being mid-December at this point, but Lyna had told her that she would, in fact, send the human girl letters. Aelita frowned. "Yes, I do. I never received any of those letters, by the way."

Lyna finished opening the manila envelope and handed it to Aelita. The human girl reached inside and pulled out a wad of envelopes held together by a rubber band that was nearly bursting at the seams. Aelita removed the rubber band and examined the envelopes. While not all of the envelopes were from Lyna—a little more than half were from the elf girl, but a fair amount were from Jeremy and whatever remained were from the others—all were addressed to Aelita. The only thing the envelopes had in common was a picture in red ink shaped like a finger pointing left. Inside, it read 'RETURN TO SENDER.' The address, Aelita realized, was correct. Her and her mother didn't receive mail at their house but from a post office box, and the address for the post office that the box was located in was correct.

Aelita realized that when her mother went to get the mail, she must have told the person working there that the address wasn't correct and there was no 'Aelita Schaffer' living with her in her residence, nor did 'Aelita Schaffer' have her permission to receive mail at their post office box. It made the young girl wonder what else her parents' hadn't let her see. She wondered if, when she was little, she had any friends who had written to her but stopped because she was never able to respond and, eventually, forgot about her. Aelita's throat began to burn with tears that she forced back.

"I…" She started. "…but I…"

Lyna side-hugged Aelita. "It's okay. We all tried to reach you, but after what felt like eternity we just stopped sending letters. We sent packages, too, but those were sent back to us as well. We tried calling the number your mother had given us, but after about the millionth time a Chinese person screamed 'Why you stupid kids keep calling? There no Aelita here!' at us, we stopped calling, too."

Aelita laughed in spite of herself. "What?" She asked.

The elf girl blinked, and then realized what she was talking about. "Oh. You see, we wanted to keep in contact with you, so we all begged your mom to give us your phone number. As it turns out, the number was for a restaurant in Chinatown." There was a silence for a moment, but then they laughed. Lyna leaned over and opened a drawer while Aelita opened the first envelope on the pile. The paper inside was torn out from a notebook, and it was obvious that it had been rushed upon writing it. In the margins, math problems were written out in child-like handwriting.

'_Dear Aelita,_

_This probably comes to no shock to you, as I am sure that I told you this before, but Jeremy is not exactly what we'd call 'in tip-top condition' when it comes to his fighting skills. We've devised a plan to get him there. Okay, now don't tell him this, but in a couple of days, I'm going to send him into the woods to get something for me, right? But then, when he begins to think that he's really close, he'll fall into a pitfall trap! Odd will cover the top again, and then the rest of us will ambush him. I'm going to be the Grand Master of Everything that is Evil, and the others will be my minions! Oh, this is going to be great! I wish you were here to see it!_

_**Sin**__cerely, Lyna._'

Aelita read it again. She had no idea what the elf girl had been talking about. "What is this?" She laughed as she announced her query to the elf girl.

Lyna sat up and took the letter from her, read over it quickly, and then laughed. "Nothing, nothing… I wrote to you every day, but not every day had something… _exciting_ happen." She laughed to herself and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I guess we were sort of bored. And…" Her face became somber as she looked up to her ceiling. Aelita looked up to it as well, and while she usually saw nothing when she did so, she could see the red, white and blue stars that decorated her ceiling. "…and I guess we always sort of _knew_ that we would see you again. I know that you found Jeremy's use of his powers impressive in France, but we wanted you to be _really_ impressed when you saw him again."

"Why? It's not like I would've thought any less of him, nor would I have thought anything less of any of you." Aelita shrugged, looking from the starry ceiling to Lyna's face. While her eyes were fixated on the ceiling, she didn't seem to see it like Aelita did. They appeared to be having a staring contest with something else entirely.

Something, she realized, of a higher power. Lyna had said she was Jewish, so Aelita assumed she was staring at the ceiling for compensation of not being able to speak to God. The human girl returned her eyes to the ceiling.

"Jeremy…" Lyna said suddenly, making Aelita jump again and look at her with a surprised expression, "…is a really good guy. And I don't know why, exactly, but none of the women in his life really see it. With the exception, obviously, of you, me and my mom."

Aelita remembered that Puck had shown her Jeremy's mother in a dream once. "What about his mother?"

"Never met her. Abandoned him and his dad the day he was born." Lyna explained, her eyes still fixated upwards. She crossed her arms behind her head and leaned back onto her red, white and blue pillows. "I know you won't know what this means, but I'll say it anyway. Laurelei saw him as a sex object. Your mother sees him as a threat to you—which, after recent events, can't really be all that far off—and a threat to herself, really. He never had a girlfriend when we went to school because all of the girls thought he was a show-off. Yumi thinks he's a jerk at times…" She paused, then sighed as she continued. "Which also isn't too far off, but I just think he doesn't get enough sleep…"

Aelita's throat burned harder.

"But…" Lyna's voice wandered off for a moment as she mumbled something to herself. She smiled and looked to Aelita. "…he thinks really highly of you. He worries about you. He made us promise not to tell you things, not that you would know what the hell we were talking about, anyway. After we had to leave in October, he was always sure that he cut his hair himself so it was exactly the same as when you last saw it, and when he broke his glasses, he wouldn't let us get him new ones because he was sure you'd notice even the slightest of difference in them…

"Uh, you know how you're sick?" Lyna asked suddenly.

"No, tell me about it." Aelita joked.

"Very funny." The elf girl said sarcastically. "He's been trying to find a cure for you. He e-mails what he finds to your dad, but he never tells me if Wally responds or not." Lyna began to dig in the drawer that she'd opened.

"My dad's name is Waldo!" Aelita protested.  
"That's what I said—Wally." Lyna shrugged. The human girl rolled her eyes and opened the next letter. It was simply a strip of paper with a short message scribble on it.

'_Dear Aelita,_

_I hate my period._

_Sincerely, Lyna._'

She laughed, and she looked to Lyna. "You wrote me a one-sentence letter?" She asked in disbelief.

"Oh, yeah, I remember that!" Lyna laughed. "Clamps, fatigue, bloating… Mother Nature has it in for women." She shrugged. "My current theory is that women are younger versions of Mother Nature. When women see younger versions of ourselves, we just get angry."

Aelita shrugged. She read a few more letters, and then Lyna groaned and pulled out the drawer. She dumped the contents on the floor and pushed them around until she found what she was looking for. "Smile," Lyna told Aelita, who did as she said. There was flash of light, and when Aelita managed to get her bearings, she could see the elf girl looking down at the screen of a digital camera. "Yup, that's a keeper. It's going on Facebook."

"What?" Aelita asked.

"What? Oh. No, it's just that I've got a picture of everyone but you. It made me feel sort of awful, so…" The elf girl shrugged again. Aelita smiled and placed the letters inside of the manila envelope and looked to the walls of Lyna's bedroom. She stood and walked over to the chest of drawers with the scrapbook. She picked up the scrapbook and walked back over to the bed before opening it. The first picture was of Michael and the woman Aelita recognized as Jeremy's mother. In her hands there was a bundle of blankets, and a small hand reached out for the woman. The caption read '_October 31__st__, 1995, Paris, France, Jeremy's Birth Day._' "That's the only picture that we have of Jeremy's mom. She's really pretty, huh? I wonder what she was like." Lyna explained suddenly, pointing to the elfin woman.

Aelita shrugged. The next picture was of Jeremy and Michael next to an evergreen tree with boxes wrapped in bright colored paper. The caption read, '_December 25__th__, 1995, Paris, France, Jeremy's First Christmas._' She turned the page and saw Kya standing next to a horse. Her hair was in braids over her shoulders, and she wore an ivory fringed dress with a light brown fringed poncho decorated with beads. In her arms was, like Jeremy's mother, a bundle of blankets. Unlike Jeremy's mother, however, the blankets had something embroidered on them. The caption read, '_December 31__st__, 1995, Dubois, Wyoming, Lyna's Birth Day._'

"Why is Kya next to a horse?" Aelita asked after nudging Lyna.

"Why…?" Lyna's voice trailed off for a moment. "My guess? She probably didn't have a car yet. This was taken near the Shoshone National Forest, wear my mom used to live before I was born. She probably got some friends of hers to help her pack up her stuff so she could leave."

"Why would she leave?"

"My dad…" The elf girl paused. "…my biological father, more of, and my mom weren't married when I was conceived or whatever. My mom tried to get my dad to hold me, or even look at me, but he wouldn't. She left because she was mad at him and she didn't want him to just show up one day."

Aelita asked nothing more on the subject when Lyna's voice shook, and she looked at the next picture. Kya stood outside a building with a round entrance with Lyna in her arms. The caption read, '_January 27__th__, 1996, Washington D.C, First Visit to the Holocaust Museum._' On the next page, there was a picture of Jeremy in a swing with a young, innocent smile on his baby face. The caption read, '_January 31__st__, 1996, Pairs, France, I Love My Swing!_' The picture below it was of Kya sitting next to a black woman. Lyna sat at Kya's feet, and another baby sat at the other woman's feet. The caption read, '_February 1__st__, 1996, Jolo, West Virginia, New Friends._' Aelita assumed that it was Gus and his mother.

Lyna turned the page before Aelita was able to. It was then that the human girl realized that the elf girl had sat next to her to look at the pictures with her. "You would not believe how long it took for me to collect all of these and order them like this. There are some funny ones in here, too." She said. The next picture was Kya and Lyna at a religious building, and the picture was labeled, '_February 28__th__, 1996, Jolo, West Virginia, Purim at the Synagogue._' The picture below it was of Jeremy and a barber focused on the young elf's fair hair, and it was labeled, '_March 3__rd__, 1996, Paris, France, Jeremy's First Haircut._'

"Oh, look at him!" Aelita cooed subconsciously, pointing to the elf. "He's so cute!"

"I know, right? Do you sometimes wonder what happened?" Lyna teased, and they glanced to the next picture, which was Lyna on St. Patrick's Day, then Kya at Passover, and then Jeremy and Michael on Easter. "I never noticed how many holidays were in here up 'till now." The next picture wasn't a holiday but a blurry one of Michael at a peculiar angle, and it was labeled, '_March 14__th__, 1996, Paris, France, Jeremy, Give Me That Camera!_'

Aelita laughed. "That explains it." She smiled. The next few pictures were of Kya and Lyna on Mother's day, Michael and Jeremy on Father's day, Lyna, Gus and who Aelita assumed was Gus' parents on Independence Day and Jeremy with Michael and a woman Aelita didn't recognize on Bastille Day. "Who is this?"

"His aunt, I'm pretty sure." Lyna responded. "You can see the Eifel Tower from where they're sitting." She pointed to the top of the Eifel Tower. The next photo was of Kya and Lyna on Rosh Hashanah, and then Jeremy scribbling in a coloring book with a fat blue crayon.

There were a few more pictures of Lyna on Jewish holidays, then Jeremy either alone and doing solitary infant things or with relatives. There was a picture of Jeremy's first birthday. There was cake all over his face, but he seemed pleased with himself, and Aelita laughed at that. The picture after it was Lyna and Gus in costumes made for children their age. "I wish I had pictures of me when I was little." She sighed, her smile not leaving her face. Lyna opened her mouth to ask why she didn't, but remembered that Lyoko probably didn't have cameras when she was little. The elf girl turned the page. There was another blurry picture, this time of Jeremy with his eyes wide with curiosity. Aelita pointed to it and asked, "Lyna, why do you put these blurry pictures in here?"

Lyna looked at it, and then to Aelita with a wide grin. "Because it amuses me to no end to see pictures Jeremy took when he was a baby." She remarked. The next picture was of Kya trimming Lyna's hair, apparently of which bothered the young elf, and then Michael sitting on a car. There was a picture of Jeremy sitting in a pile of orange, red and brown leaves, and then one of Gus and Lyna playing in the snow. They'd been taken on the same day. There was a picture of Lyna and Kya in front of their menorah for Hanukah, and then Jeremy on Christmas again, but no picture of Lyna celebrating Christmas.

"I thought you said you celebrated Christmas." Aelita protested to the absence.

"Not until after my parents got married." Lyna shrugged. There was Gus with his parents celebrating Kwanzaa, and then Lyna's first birthday. "Note how my face is cake-free." The elf girl pointed out as she turned the page. There was a small struggle as she tried to turn the page again without letting Aelita look at the pictures on it, but the human girl eventually won that fight. Lyna laughed as Aelita's face turned a shade of pink darker than her hair. The human girl shook her head and turned the page without a word.

They looked at more pictures, eventually including Yumi and Jeremy. There was one of Jeremy when he was six with a pale face and a red nose—apparently, he had the flu—with a dark blue blanket wrapped around his shoulders, and then all four of the original aging gang with their parents and a cup of cocoa. There was one with Jeremy, Lyna, Yumi and more girls that Aelita didn't recognize in their pajamas. The girls were giggling wildly but Jeremy couldn't be less amused. There was makeup smeared over his face, paint on his nails and ribbons knotted into his spray-painted hair. It was labeled, '_December 31__st__, 2002, Jolo, West Virginia, Jeremy Looks Pretty!_' Aelita laughed as she looked to Lyna in confusion, and the elf girl took a breath. "So, it was my seventh birthday and I had a sleepover, alright? I invited Yumi, Jessica, Rachel, Anne, Mary and Darla—you don't know any of them—and our mom made Jeremy take us some popcorn. Then we ambushed him and made our dad take a picture."

Aelita threw back her head and laughed harder. "Poor Jeremy…" She managed.

"Yeah, poor Jeremy. It took an hour _just_ to get the makeup off." Lyna rolled her eyes. She paused for a moment. "My mom and I don't wear makeup. Where did we get it?" She asked herself. She shrugged.

The next few pictures were of the elfin siblings getting medicine dropped into their ears to help their ear infections—which, Lyna then explained, their entire family was prone to getting—and then a picture of Gus, Yumi, Lyna and Jeremy on a roller coaster. Gus giving Lyna a noogie. Jeremy trying to get his glasses from Yumi. Lyna and Jeremy asleep in the back of their parents' car. Gus and Yumi on a horse. All four of them at the pool. Yumi and a young Japanese boy that Lyna told Aelita was Hiroki, Yumi's younger brother. Jeremy's eighth birthday, complete with a jack-o-lantern that resembled his humorless face remarkably. Gus holding a goldfish in a plastic bag. Yumi practicing her Japanese characters. Lyna on Gus' shoulders pointing to the horizon. Their families on Thanksgiving. Jeremy and Lyna giving Yumi and Gus Hanukah gifts. Michael and Kya lighting the menorah together. Lyna and Jeremy playing war with toy soldiers. Gus' eleventh birthday. Jeremy and Kya on Mother's Day. Lyna and Michael on Father's day. Yumi's eleventh birthday. Jeremy with Mort resting on his shoulders. Gus and Yumi with wide eyes, like they had seen something they shouldn't have. Lyna holding a Barbie doll to the camera that was both naked and beheaded. Yumi and Gus standing among others their age at their fifth grade graduation. Ulrich cutting the tags from his clothes. Yumi trying to get Ulrich to dance with her. Lyna styling Ulrich's hair. Jeremy holding a trophy for swimming. Yumi and Lyna reading magazines. Ulrich, Jeremy and Gus playing soccer. All five of them playing Monopoly. Jeremy lying on a weight bench, completely exhausted, and Lyna standing next to him with her hand in a position that suggested face-palm. The pictures went on and on until the five of them stood outside a metal hatch sticking out of the ground. When Lyna turned the page, it revealed the same picture that was in the snow globe. There were no pictures from in-between those two periods of time.

"Where are…" Aelita began, but she silenced her question. The hatch led to the Xanadu's headquarters. All of the happy memories after that moment were hanging on Lyna's walls. Eventually, Jeremy met Laurelei, and the memories after that were not ones she cared to remember. The elf girl went to turn the page, but Aelita stopped her and closed the book. She stared at the cover for a while, and after a few minutes, Lyna opened the book again, turned to a page with a picture of the boys in the group pounding snow into each other's hair. She slid a picture below it but wouldn't allow Aelita to see it, and she scribbled something below it. When she finished, she turned it so the human girl could see the new picture. It was the picture Lyna had taken earlier, and underneath, the caption said, '_December 18__th__, 2009, Jolo, West Virginia, Pretty When She Smiles._'

Lyna shut the book suddenly and placed it on the bed. She curled up her knees and placed the palms of her hands on them, and then her chin on her hands. The elf girl was silent for a moment. She glanced to Aelita and said, "Aelita, I'm going to ask you something that _will_ make you _very_ uncomfortable, so I'm telling you now so you can be prepared when I do. Tell me when you're ready."

Aelita glanced about the room for a moment, and then placed her arms in the standard 'what' position. "I'm ready _now._"

"Do you _want_ to have sex with my brother?*"

"_What?_"

Lyna sat up. "I _told_ you it would make you uncomfortable! Why does nobody listen to me?"

"That was _totally_ uncalled for!" Aelita protested, her face beet red. She grabbed a strand of her hair and rubbed it repeatedly. "I don't even know what it is! Why would I want to do something that I don't even understand?"

"I know that you don't know what it is. But you know that it's what Jeremy and Laurelei did, right?"

"Yes…"

"And you hate Laurelei, right?"

"Yes…"

"Does it bother you that they did that?"

"Lyna—"

"_Does it bother you that they did that?_"

Aelita paused for a moment. "Yes…" She admitted reluctantly.

"And you're jealous of Laurelei in some ways, right?"

"_'Jealous'_ being a relative term…"

"Do you know _why_ you're jealous of her?"

The human girl paused again. _Why_ was she jealous of Laurelei? She'd have been lying had she said that she'd never thought about it—she'd thought about it quite a bit, in truth—but not if she said that she didn't really know why. There was the obvious reason that Laurelei's outer beauty was striking because of commonly accepted standards, and had anyone besides Lyna been with her, that probably would've been what Aelita would've responded with. The elf girl had already made it clear that Laurelei was not one to be jealous of, and while the human girl knew that, she couldn't help it. Aelita closed her eyes and proceeded to think for a long time, thinking of everything that Laurelei had that she didn't. The ability to come and go as she pleased was something that Aelita had long envied, but that was too easily banished from her thoughts and was not just something she felt towards Laurelei. There was the support of millions of creatures, but even that could easily be shaken from her thoughts. Aelita's eyes snapped open as the fact that the things that she could push from her thoughts were not what she was envious of. She closed her eyes again and compared everything she could think of that her** and Laurelei either shared or did not share, and eventually, she realized it.

Jeremy. He was something that they shared. Laurelei had, technically, met him first. Jeremy had known Aelita longer than he had known Laurelei, but putting herself aside, he had met Laurelei before Aelita knew he existed. And, like Lyna said, it did bother her that they'd done those things—keeping in mind, she realized, that she didn't know what 'those things' were—before she'd gotten a chance to meet him. Even though they were no longer doing 'those things,' Lyna's statement had made it clear that she and Jeremy weren't doing 'those things,' either. And they'd never done 'those things.' Perhaps, she tried to cheer herself up, that it wasn't the fact that Jeremy and Laurelei had done 'those things' that bother her but the fact that she was afraid that they would do so again.

She sulked when she realized that she'd completely failed her attempt to cheer herself up. "That is a _really_ hard question to answer." Aelita pointed out with her hand on her forehead. "Why are you asking me all of these questions?"

"Humans…" Lyna paused, collecting her words, "…act in regular and predictable patterns depending on their personality. You're very innocent but, nevertheless, when you get thinking, your brain starts going a mile a minute. Whenever I bring up Laurelei, your expression becomes very stern—almost grouchy—and you get defensive when I try to dissect your thoughts about her." Lyna smiled at Aelita's reaction. The human girl was not too pleased to find that the elf girl was right. "But I bring up Jeremy, and your eyes are somewhere else as you just sort of daydream about him and ignore any fault he has."

Aelita said nothing for a moment, then crossed her arms and looked away. "I do not _daydream._"

"_Sure_ you don't." Lyna said as she picked up a voice recorder.

"I don't!" Aelita announced, closing her eyes in defiance. Lyna held the voice recorder a safe distance from the human girl's ear and hit 'PLAY.' It played the sound of a door opening and then Jeremy's voice asking, 'Hey, girls, what's up?' Lyna laughed as Aelita almost melted. Hearing that, Aelita looked at Lyna and the voice recorder. "_Oh,_ don't _do_ that!" The human girl crossed her arms after smacking the elf girl's hand.

"The fact of the matter _is _that you become defensive very easily. You grew up with defenses surrounding you all the time, didn't you?"

"Well, not always, I suppose. There was a year-long period of time that I didn't need defenses because I could use my powers well enough to protect myself. My defenses really started when I couldn't _do_ that anymore." Aelita looked at her toes. "Jeremy was the first person I'd met from the outside world. He's really trying hard, isn't he? I don't know why he does, because if he would sit still long enough, I'd be totally content just _staring_ at him. _All day._"

"…All day?"

"All day."

"Okay, don't tell him that. You might just freak him out." Lyna shook her head, as if to remove a mental image that she didn't need. "My theory is that it's not only for you that he tries as hard as he does, but for your parents, too."

"My parents? I'm beginning to think they couldn't care less about _half_ the stuff he's trying for."

"No, he's not doing the actual, like, _research_ for them. Most of what he does _is_ for you. But your parents probably like _Laurelei_ more than they like him." Lyna grabbed Aelita's shoulders and shook them. "_**Laurelei!**_ And she's a total fuckwad!"

Aelita tilted her head to one side. "What's a fuckwad?"

Lyna placed a finger on the human girl's mouth. "_Okay,_ I won't tell anyone you said that if you don't tell Jeremy I taught you that." Aelita nodded, and Lyna removed her finger from her mouth. She leaned over to her and whispered into her ear, "And, just between you and me, a fuckwad is obviously an abnormally sized wad of fuck."

* * *

*Lyna doesn't mince words.

**Is this even proper grammar? My computer seems to think so, but I think it just looks wrong!

* * *

A/N: Laurelei: Look up the word 'fuckwad' in the dictionary. You'll see your face next to the definition! Also; Lyna: Teaching Aelita to say 'fuckwad' will most likely come back to bite you later. So will asking Aelita questions she _clearly_ doesn't want to answer. {Her personality is sort of the same as the person at the top of your hit list. Or, in Waldo, Anthea, Xana and Laurelei's case, directly below Jeremy on _their_ hit lists. Also, I apologize for the wordy title. School's started, you see, and I'm already sick of those types of questions. And I haven't even had English yet! Also, I like these things better than parentheses. Oh, and popcorn!}


	30. Chapter 30

_Chapter Thirty: Too Often_

Lyna wrapped the fresh bandages over Aelita's wounds and then fastened them into place. The human girl struggled to breathe for a moment, and then turned around to face the elf girl and Yumi—who Lyna had sent on a short trip to get one of Jeremy's old pajama shirts, which she'd only agreed to after the elf girl had pointed out that no one wanted to explain to Anthea why they needed Aelita's pajamas—with a pained look on her face. "Why so tight?" She asked, her arm folded over her stomach.

"The pressure should help stop the bleeding." Yumi explained as she handed the human girl the pajama shirt.

"Speaking of which, how long should I wear these?" Aelita asked, pulling the shirt over her shoulders. She looked down to button it, and noticed that it was pale pink. "And why is this pink?"

Lyna shrugged. "My guess is until they scab over." She said, and then crossed her arms. "And, honestly, we have no idea. It was bright blue when we bought it. And it was a lot bigger, too*."

Aelita laughed half-heartedly and began to button the shirt. Apparently, it had once been a lot bigger than it was, but it was still massive on her. The sleeves covered everything but the tips of her three longest fingers, and it covered her bandages completely. When she finished buttoning it—of which she had to sit down to do because of its size, the hem reaching her mid-thighs—she rolled the sleeves up. The insides of the sleeves were white. Aelita opened her mouth to say something, but Lyna hushed her. The elf girl's ears perked up a bit at the ends, and then she shook her head with a slight smile. "The others are waiting for us in the hallway. Come on, Aelita, you're going to want to see this." Lyna said, and when the human girl stood, she looked between her and Yumi before opening the door.

Gus stood next to Lyna's door, and he handed Yumi and Lyna each a whiteboard and a black dry erase marker. When he saw Aelita, he pulled out his wand and waved it, producing another whiteboard and dry erase marker. "You're going to need one of these. When you see Jeremy, rate him on a scale of zero to ten; ten being the best and zero being the worse, obviously." The wizard explained. He picked up his own set and walked down the hallway a bit before turning and watching the ceiling intently.

The human girl looked from Gus to Ulrich and Odd. Odd was leaning against the wall, and he waved to his cousin with his purple paw. Ulrich stood next to Gus and nodded his head in acknowledgement. They, like the others, held a set that consisted of a whiteboard and a dry erase marker. When she waved to them, they turned their attention to the ceiling. Aelita looked down to her whiteboard and drew a 'ten' on it. She directed her attention to Jeremy's closed door, which was across the hall from Lyna's bedroom. She glanced quickly to Lyna and asked, "Why are you all looking at the ceiling? Isn't Jeremy in his bedroom?"

The elf girl didn't respond right away. "Nope." She shook her head and held out her hand. "You'll see in five… four… three… two… one…" As the numbers decreased, so did the number of fingers Lyna held out on her hand.

On cue, Jeremy crashed through the ceiling.

When he hit the floor, he rolled down the hallway and was eventually stopped by Gus, his head on the floor and his feet in the wizard's face. The elf boy was frozen there for a moment, and then he fell backwards with his arms spread to either size. "_Jeremy!_" Aelita shouted, dropping her whiteboard and her dry erase marker as she ran to his side. She tried to shake him awake for a moment, and when the other creatures did nothing, she glared at them. "_Hello!_ Was I the only person who saw him _crash through the ceiling?_"

The others said nothing for a bit, but then Lyna turned around her whiteboard so Aelita could see the 'ten' written on it. "Nice entrance. Ten." She commented, and then looked to Yumi.

Yumi did the same as Lyna, revealing an 'eight' written. "A little shaky on the landing. Eight." The demigoddess looked to Odd.

"Too quick to the punch line. Seven." Odd commented in-step with his board and looked to Gus.

Gus tilted his board down. "You hit me in the face! Five." The wizard looked to Ulrich.

"Too boring. Rejected." Ulrich said, dropping his board and marker before walking away.

Lyna bent down and picked up Aelita's board and examined it for a moment. "…And that's a ten from Aelita, which brings us to a grand total of forty, which divided by five since Ulrich didn't really put in a score gives an average of eight out of a possible ten." The elf girl did the math in her head. The remaining creatures began to walk away. "Nicely done," Lyna smiled at her brother as she walked by.

Yumi carefully stepped over Jeremy's arm. "Let's try for that ten next time, alright, Jeremy?" She called back as she walked away with the others.

Aelita stared in the direction the creatures had left in for a moment. "Yeah, it isn't like he just fell through the ceiling or anything!" She shouted at them. Jeremy groaned and tried to sit up, and when she noticed that, she wrapped her arms around him and helped him up. "Are you okay? What happened?" She asked the elf boy, but he only ran his fingers through his hair slightly, and then held his head in that position. He groaned again, and the human girl sighed. She brushed some rubble from the shoulder of his coat.

"I'm going to have to fix that." She heard Michael say, and she turned around to look at him. He was looking up at the ceiling, but did nothing and simply began to walk by Aelita.

"I should say so. Your son just crashed through the roof!" Aelita announced, pointing to the hole in the ceiling. Michael blinked.

He turned and looked at the hole. "Oh. I hadn't even noticed that. I was talking about the hall light. It's flickering." The elf man shrugged and continued his way down the hall. It was Aelita's turn to blink.

She looked up in exasperation. "Sometimes I feel like I'm the only normal one here." She sighed.

Someone rubbed her head. "I know exactly how you feel." A man said, and the human girl looked to the owner. He was tall enough to make Gus look like the tallest person in Munchkin Land, and he was bulky besides. His head was round, his ears were abnormally small and his forehead jetted out over his already deep-set eyes. His skin was orange and clearly dirty, his long fingers had sharp claws, and he smelled of rotten human flesh. He, in all accounts, was very frightening, and when he spoke again, his sharp, blood-stained teeth added to Aelita's list of things she feared about him. However, his voice showed no hint that he would harm her. "I go home and watch nature documentaries for the rest of the day after spending just an hour with this family." The man said with a laugh. He looked to the elf boy in Aelita's arms and sighed. "Jeremy, did you fall through the roof again?"

Jeremy nodded.

The man sighed again. "You have to stop doing that, man. It's bad for your mental and physical health." He said point-blankly.

Jeremy opened his eyes briefly to glare at him. "I _really_ don't give a damn."

"That's the spirit." The man snapped his long fingers and smiled. He walked down the hallway and waved. When Kya walked by, he called out, "Thanks again, Kya!"

Kya waved to the man with a smile. "Anytime, Marty!" She let her hand drop as she muttered, "What a nice guy." She turned and noticed Jeremy and Aelita. She walked over to them and helped Aelita bring Jeremy to his feet. "Did you fall through the roof again?" Kya asked the elf boy.

Jeremy nodded again.

The elf woman shook her head. "Honey, you should probably go lie down." She advised him. He nodded, rubbed his forehead and entered his bedroom, closing the door behind him. Kya shook her head again. "That boy's going to kill himself doing that one of these days." She muttered as she began to walk away. Aelita grabbed her arm to stop her.

"How…" Aelita began, pausing to glance around the hallway. "…often does this happen?" She asked.

"Often enough," Kya shrugged.

"Do you know how he does it?"

"Does what?"

"Crash through the ceiling."

"Oh. It's different every time. Last time he was testing some kind of levitating device and it sort of… exploded."

"Oh. My. God."

"Yet he survives every time. It's a total mystery."

"Does anyone _else_ crash through the ceiling that I should know about?"

"Well, Marty does occasionally, but only when he's with Jeremy and _he_ crashes through the ceiling."

"And who _is_ Marty, exactly?"

"He's an ogre that lives a bit up the mountain with his wife. Nice guy. His wife is nice, too." Kya explained, and she blinked at Aelita's shocked expression. "Are… are you okay, sweetie?"

Aelita shook her head. "I'd like to report a hit-and-run." She said, her hand resting on her forehead. "This is too much for my brain to handle, really."

"It usually is the first time someone sees Jeremy crash through the ceiling."

"Can I go lie down with Jeremy?" Aelita asked nervously, pointing to the elf boy's doorway with her thumb.

Kya nodded, and then turned to continue down the hallway. "I think that would be best." She agreed. She paused suddenly, and she considered taking back what she'd said, but her face broke into a smile when she decided not to react in such a way.

* * *

"Jeremy?" He heard Aelita call out his name. The elf boy hummed his response. "Your glasses are broken." Her tone was almost mocking.

He forced his eyes open and removed his glasses to look at the lenses. They were, in fact, broken. He hummed again, folding his glasses and placing them on the bedside table. He placed his arm over his eyes. He felt Aelita lie down next to him, and he smiled slightly when she moved closer to him. She grabbed his free arm and wrapped it over her shoulder. She felt warmer than usual. "Are you feeling alright?" Jeremy asked.

The elf boy could feel the human girl nod. "Yeah. My head just hurts a little from that incident earlier." Aelita explained to him with a small shrug.

"Sorry about that. It happens sometimes." He stifled a laugh.

"Yeah, you're going to have to tell me what happened later, don't forget that." She poked his ribcage playfully.

Jeremy would've poked her back if he wasn't afraid of hurting her. "Good luck with that."

Aelita didn't respond. He looked down at her, and she'd closed her eyes. Jeremy smiled again and clicked off his light. In the darkness, Aelita said, "Jeremy?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"For everything."

He looked at her again, but she said nothing more. Her breathing slowed, and he could tell that she'd fallen asleep. "Thank God," He whispered. She hadn't gotten any sleep after Ligaya had left. The pixie, apparently, had gotten the same urge as Jeremy but had acted on it. The urge was still tugging at his head, but he refused to act on it. Jeremy looked down to Aelita and pushed a stray hair from her pale face.

There was silence for what felt like only a few minutes after he, too, closed his eyes. Eventually, however, Aelita tightened his grip on his turtleneck and her necklace began to glow brighter. Her eyes, too, began to glow from under her eyelids, and she subconsciously sent an electric shock through the elf's system. Jeremy bit his tongue to keep from screaming—which would attract people to his bedroom but would also (and, in his opinion, more importantly) awaken the sleeping human girl—but he was unable to keep his body from having a spasm. He smoothed his hair, which had begun to stand up on end, and looked down to Aelita. He gently rubbed her arm—suddenly taking note that she was wearing his pajama shirt—and she relaxed almost immediately.

Jeremy glanced to his alarm clock, and he could see that it was nearly ten o'clock. He blinked, noting that several hours had gone by. "Must've fallen asleep…" He said, and he almost sat up. He remembered that Aelita was lying next to him and stopped in his tracks. He placed his head on the pillow again and stared up at his ceiling. His head was still spinning from crashing through the ceiling, but otherwise, he was feeling fine. Lyna suddenly stood over him, and he jumped. When he was able to calm down, he whispered, "This is the last time I'm going to ask you to stop doing that."

Lyna smiled. "Sorry. How are you feeling?"

"Better." Jeremy rubbed his head.

"Why is your hair all static-y?" The elf girl asked, pointing to her brother's hair. Jeremy motioned his eyes at Aelita. "Oh…" She smiled again, but only briefly. She looked back to her brother and asked quietly, "Do you remember when Odd attacked us? Back in October."

"How could I forget?" Jeremy hissed.

"Before we really got going, Odd had told Aelita that Laurelei said 'hello.' He told me why he said that, later, or more of why he was told to say that."

"This ought to be good."

"Laurelei had said that Aelita was her half-sister. I hadn't really thought about it up until I found out that Laurelei was holding her captive and was completely horrible to her… and then I really got to thinking about it."

"Oh, really?"

"Don't fake interest in my thoughts, Einstein. I'll squash you like a bug."

"Good luck with that."

Lyna pulled up Jeremy's skull and smacked the back of his head. "I was talking to her earlier, asking her what she thought about what you and Laurelei did, and if she wanted to do that with you, too."

"Why do you do this to me?"

"Mostly because it's fun to watch your reaction. Anyway, if you think about it, if Xana and Waldo were once the same person, Laurelei and Aelita will have DNA with their fathers' sides so closely related that any scientist who looks at it will say that their fathers were the same…"

"Quite frankly, I'm not all that excited to test that theory of yours."

"…but I'm making sense, aren't I?"

Jeremy uncurled Aelita's fingers and sat up. He unfolded his glasses and put them on his face before looking sternly at his sister. "Laurelei and Aelita are not sisters of any kind, Lyna. They're nothing alike."

Lyna sighed. "I know that. But…" She glanced to Aelita before returning her attention to Jeremy. "…when Laurelei had Aelita in her clutches, do you think that…" She pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "…it could've been sibling rivalry?"

"'Sibling rivalry' doesn't include _torture!_" Jeremy almost shouted, but he quieted himself.

"And _prostitutes_ don't usually try to _kill_ you!" Lyna pointed out. "But that sure didn't stop Laurelei, did it?" She took a breath. "Look, I'm not saying that they're anything alike. Because they aren't. And I wasn't trying to say that the actual torture she went through was sibling rivalry."

Jeremy took a breath. "Then what _were_ you trying to say?" He asked in annoyance.

"Do you remember Darla's brother?"

"Darla's brother…?"

"Joey."

"Oh, yeah, _Joey!_ I remember him."

"Do you remember how he'd spit on his sandwich before he'd let you have it?"

"Where are you going with this?"

"You used to date Laurelei, right? But now you aren't and I'm sure if you asked her Aelita would totally want to go out with you. Not too long ago Laurelei had Aelita with her and while we may never know exactly what she said, Aelita really wants to be in your presence right now…"

"You're going to end this soon and let me go back to sleep, right?"

"Shut up. Maybe I'll ask her this in the morning, but… I think Laurelei could've brought this up, too, and the sibling code basically says you aren't supposed to date your sibling's ex."

"You see this look on my face? It says 'doubt it.'"

"Well, you and I have never come across this problem because we're both straight therefore you have no interest in my ex-boyfriends, and I completely _hate_ your only ex-girlfriend! But I know it's part of the code!"

"Lower your voice!"

"Sorry. In this sense, Laurelei is like Joey."

"Didn't you date Joey, though?"

"Yes. I broke up with him after I hit puberty, though…"

"Why?"

"Human. Elf. _Not_ going to work." There was an awkward silence. Jeremy crossed his arms and stared at his sister in annoyance. It took the elf girl a moment to realize why. She glanced between him and Aelita quickly and corrected, "It will for you guys, though!"

Jeremy shook his head. "You're such an idiot." He muttered, glancing to Aelita as well. When he noticed that she shivered, he covered her with his blankets. The elf boy smiled in amusement when she reacted immediately. "She's such a novelty." He said, looking back to his sister.

They jumped at the sound of an angry knock at the door. A light clicked on in Lyna's head. "Which reminds me why I came in here in the first place. They want to talk to you." She reported with a nervous smile.

"And you left them _outside?_" Jeremy asked.

"They were angry! I was in my philosopher mood! It's pointless to argue with me when I'm like that but they tried anyway!"

Jeremy rolled his eyes and stood up. Lyna followed him as he headed for the front door, noticing the pile of snow that had collected under the hole he'd put in the roof. When the elf boy opened the door, the bright, white snow that fell created a shadow over the porch, but even then the two silhouettes were unmistakable. "Where. Is. My. Daughter?"

* * *

Aelita chased the little white light in the distance through a forest that she recognized. She paused and placed her hands on her knees, panting heavily. The light flew back to her, and soon, three more joined it. At first what they said was inaudible, but they began singing a song that was primitive and familiar. The lights flew off, and she chased them again. Where they stopped was unknown, but when she could see them again, an explosion sent her back a few meters. The residue thinned out, and the forest in front of her was gone. In its place was a cliff, and from it, Aelita could see the ocean. The lights were up in the sky, but when Aelita called out to them in the language they had sung to her, they were joined by a countless number of lights. They spun and created a disk of light in the sky. Aelita took a step forward off the cliff, but instead of falling, a pink disk of energy kept her foot suspended. She stepped onto it with her other foot and while it sunk a few centimeters, it supported her weight. Another pink disk formed in front of her, and when she stepped on it, a staircase of them formed. She stepped up to the next one, and soon, she was running up them. The disk of light above her broke apart, as did the daylight. The lights became stars in the night sky for a moment before they slowly peeled themselves from it and flew down to Aelita. They circled her, and when she reached the final pink disk, she was surrounded completely by millions of the lights. Their white color turned yellow, and she could make out dark silhouettes dancing in the yellow light. The lights stopped suddenly, and their light broke apart. They turned red and flew away, revealing shadows circling the girl. She panicked and turned to run away, but the pink disks of energy dissolved and left her stranded. One of the shadows approached her. "Are you afraid of the dark?" It asked in a dangerous tone. "_A_r_e_ y_o_u _a_f_r_a_i_d _o_f _t_h_e_ d_a_r_k_?" It asked again, but its voiced had changed to a mixture of voices she recognized beneath its own.

Xana. Laurelei. Puck. Marty. The dragon. General Winston. Shiloh. Amaterasu. Her parents. Their voices were all there.

She hesitated before responding, and then said, "N-no…" She stiffened her back and her expression, hoping to give the impression of bravery.

The shadow frowned, but then grinned. "_W_e'_l_l s_e_e _a_b_o_u_t_ t_h_a_t_." It threatened, flying back into the shadows. They circled closer, and she noticed that the closest they could get was the edge of her disk. As soon as she realized that, however, Aelita noticed that the disk was dissolving. The edge remained, but the circular hole in the disk grew larger. She moved her feet closer together, but soon, the inside of the disk had completely dissolved. She fell through, but grabbed the edge of the disk to keep from falling into the ocean far below her. She closed her eyes and concentrated, but almost let go of the disk when she felt herself move**. Aelita looked up and saw that she'd made it larger. It turned upside down, and she hung in the air for a moment before she placed her feet on the edge and straightened her back. She felt comforted for a moment, but as soon as she felt so, the disk's edge dissolved. She fell to the ocean below her, and the shadows chased after her. She fell faster than the shadows, however, but that brought little comfort.

She hit the ocean hard, like it was made of ice. She ran her fingers over it subconsciously for a moment before becoming aware and afraid of the shadows that circled her on the ocean. She jumped up and tried to find a weak point in their circle, but the shadow that had spoken to her earlier approached her, keeping in step with her front side so she couldn't run. She could hear Lyna and Jeremy talking to each other in the background, but she didn't register what they said. Aelita looked up to the sky, hoping to see a flying creature that she could call out to for help. The shadows curved over her view of the sky, and the only things that could be seen were the shadow's eerie red eyes, their sharp teeth and the ocean below her. Soon, Aelita could no longer hear Jeremy and Lyna speaking. It was then that the shadow spoke to her. "A_r_e _y_o_u_ a_f_r_a_i_d_ o_f_ t_h_e _d_a_r_k_?_" It asked once more, not pausing long enough for her to answer. "I _s_e_e_ i_n_ y_o_u_r_ e_y_e_s_ t_h_a_t_ y_o_u _f_e_a_r _t_h_e_ d_a_r_k_n_e_s_s_."

"I'm not afraid of the dark," Aelita protested, her faux bravery appearing once again to hide the fact that she was afraid. Or more of, she corrected herself, she wasn't afraid of the darkness itself, but being alone in it. The hungry eyes and sharp teeth were frightening, and she couldn't hear or see anything from the outside world that could comfort her. The shadows began to form a cube, and soon, Aelita could see the silhouette of her bedroom form on the dark cube's walls. She found her door and ran to it, trying to pry it open. When it wouldn't, she felt her hands sting. She looked at them and found that they appeared to have been slashed violently. The shadow approached her, and Aelita could feel it breathing on her neck. "You don't scare me." She lied, spinning around and bringing her arm through its head.

Her arm stung, and when she looked at it, the same thing had happened to her arm as her hand. "_A_r_e_ y_o_u _s_u_r_e_?_" The shadow asked, grinning. "A_r_e _y_o_u_ s_u_r_e_ I _d_o_n_'_t_ s_c_a_r_e _y_o_u_?"

The shadow walls laughed maniacally in tune, and they sang their question to her. "_Are you afraid of the dark? Are you afraid of the dark?_" They sang over and over.

The shadow in front of Aelita placed its hand on her shoulder and began to shake her gently. "_A_e_l_i_t_a_…_ A_e_l_i_t_a_, _h_o_n_e_y_…" It whispered to her, her mother's voice trying to take over for a moment before it continued. "_Y_o_u_'_l_l _n_e_v_e_r_ l_e_a_v_e _m_e _a_g_a_i_n_."

Aelita panicked when she realized that she had nowhere to go if she could leave. "Who are you?" She demanded, "What do you want from me?"

The shadow frowned, and all of the voices that it spoke in said something different. It shook its head and smirked at her with its face appearing to be directed at the ocean. "A_f_r_a_i_d_ o_f_ t_h_e d_a_r_k_, _y_o_u_ a_r_e_._"

Her eyes narrowed in frustration for a moment, and she used it to fake courage again. "Leave me _alone!_" She ordered, and the shadow frowned again. It shook her again, more violently the second time. "Let go of me!" Aelita shouted, trying to break free of its grasp. She eventually managed to, and the second the shadow no longer held her, she ran. It grabbed her ankle, but its grip slipped. She could feel the slashes that the shadow had left in her ankle and the rest of her foot when it was forced to release it. She slipped on the ocean, but she could get back up. She curled her knees up to her chest and tried to make herself as small as possible.

The shadow ran towards her and shook her violently once more. "_A_e_l_i_t_a_…_ A_e_l_i_t_a_… _A_e_l_i_t_a_!_ I_t_'_s_ M_o_m_m_y_…_ D_a_d_d_y_'_s _h_e_r_e_,_ t_o_o_…_ A_e_l_i_t_a_!" It called out to her. Her mother's voice was once again fighting for dominance. Aelita placed her hands on the back of her head and told herself to ignore it. She could hear Jeremy's voice again, and the shadow appeared to talk to him. "_S_h_e_'_s_ m_y_ d_a_u_g_h_t_e_r_… _n_o_,_ I _d_o_n_'_t_ w_a_n_t_ y_o_u _t_o _t_r_y_… _f_i_n_e_!_ Y_o_u_'_r_e_ s_o_ s_m_a_r_t_;_ y_o_u _t_r_y_!"

The shadow stepped back, and for a moment, there was nothing. Aelita felt someone touch her shoulder, but they didn't shake her. She heard Jeremy speak again, and while his voice was obviously hushed, it sounded like he was talking right into her ear. "Aelita… Aelita. Wake up. You're asleep. C'mon… wake up!" He said, and she closed her eyes for a moment.

* * *

When she opened them, she was no longer in a room made of shadows that was trying to imitate her bedroom. Aelita was on Jeremy's bed, facing where he had once been laying. He'd moved, however, and her heart broke a little bit to see that. "Aelita." Jeremy whispered into her ear again, and she jumped a bit. She turned and looked at him. He looked concerned for a moment, but even after his expression relaxed into a smile, Aelita could still see the sadness that lingered in his eyes. "Hey," Jeremy greeted quietly, and then pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Hey," She returned his greeting in a similar tone. Aelita sat up and stretched, after which she added, "You wouldn't believe the dream I—" She stopped suddenly when she saw not only her mother but her father, who smiled at her despite their obvious displeasure. The human girl narrowed her eyes, realized what she was doing and rubbed her eye with her wrist to try to pass it off as sleepiness. "Hi there, Mommy, Daddy." She greeted her parents with a tone that sounded slightly displeased.

There was an awkward pause as Aelita looked between Anthea and Waldo. "Uh… what are you doing here?" Their daughter asked nervously.

Anthea pulled her coat tighter over her chest before she walked over to her daughter. She fumbled for Aelita's hand for a moment before she said, "Come on, sweetie, we're going home."

Aelita wanted so badly to admit that she didn't know where home was anymore. "Um, okay, but…" She looked from her mother to her father. "…what are _you_ doing here, Daddy?"

Anthea helped the girl from the bed, and she spoke before allowing her husband a chance to speak. "I told you already. We're going home, silly." The woman smiled, placing her hands on her knees to get on eye level with Aelita.

"But… but…" Aelita began her protest. She understood completely, but she assumed playing dumb would at least delay the inevitable. She motioned in different directions with her arms, talking nonsense in the darkness.

The others simply looked at her while she did so. Waldo walked over and placed a finger on Aelita's lips. He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked her over. "Where did you get that shirt?" He asked, and Jeremy opened his mouth to say something. Anthea glared at him, and he closed his mouth in response. "That's not a girl's shirt…"

"That doesn't really matter now, does it?" Anthea said, picking up Aelita's coat that she'd placed on the bed. She handed it to her daughter before placing her hand on her husband's shoulder, which was responded to by him straightening his back. "The only thing that does is that we're finally going back home." She smiled.

Her plan had failed. "We've only been here for two months! Didn't we move here for a reason?" Aelita protested, feeling the urge to stamp her foot and scream but ignoring it.

"Yes; to be safer. But clearly we aren't safe! You were kidnapped, Aelita!" Anthea said.

"What about your job?" Aelita asked.

"I quit when I found out you went missing."

"Your students?"

"They'll survive without me."

"The house?"

"Is on the market."

Aelita paused, out of things to query her mother about. "What about my happiness?" She asked suddenly. "You got _that_ in a box somewhere, too?"

Her parents recoiled, and her father scolded, "Aelita!"

Jeremy, on the other hand, couldn't have laughed any harder. Waldo and Anthea shot him a glare, and he tried his best to contain it.

Waldo looked into Aelita's eyes sternly. "Your safety takes priority over your happiness, princess," He tried to calm her, but the statement only made her angrier. Nevertheless, she forced her coat onto her arms. "That's a good girl!" Waldo rubbed Aelita's head lovingly, and she sighed unhappily. She muttered something that her parents didn't catch. The two human adults conversed for a moment, but when Waldo looked down to Aelita, he noticed the bandages under the elf boy's old pajama shirt. "What are those bandages for?" He asked, and his daughter flushed and zipped up the coat without saying anything.

"Bandages…?" Jeremy muttered, and when Anthea looked at him with a skeptical query in her eyes, he waved his arms back and forth and shook his head to tell her that he didn't know anything about it. She rolled her eyes, not believing him at all, and then took her daughter's hand and led her out of the room. The elf boy followed the humans as they left, opening the front door for them when they reached it. Aelita looked and noticed the others sitting on the couch, who bid her farewell with either silent waves, quiet good-byes or both. She waved to them, forcing a smile. When she was out in the snow, she noticed Jeremy, and he waved to her sadly. She waved back, no longer smiling.

Jeremy watched her leave and closed the door when she was out of sight. He looked to the others, and for a moment, there was no sound from any of them. "Go ahead, say it," Jeremy started. "I blew it. I should've been protecting her and now she's gone and she's never coming back and it's all _my fault!_"

Lyna stood, walked over to her brother and gave him a hug. "Hey, look at it this way. The Xanadu abandoned France in October, so it most definitely the safest place for her. And you were protecting her, but you just couldn't stop her from being kidnapped, and that's not your fault, because none of us could do anything." She tried to cheer him up. "And this is so not forever. Aelita will just go back to her bedroom, and sooner or later she'll escape, get to a payphone and ring us up! And I gave Waldo the envelope with all the letters in it, so now she has our address, too…"

The others stood up and walked over to Jeremy as well. Yumi rubbed Jeremy's hair, messing it up, Ulrich punched his arm, and Odd offered him a piece of candy—which was accepted—to help ease the pain. Gus, at first, did nothing, then extended his arms to either side and asked, "Do you want a man-hug?"

"No, I don't want a man-hug!" Jeremy said, the candy in his mouth clicking against his teeth.

"Are you sure? Man-hugs make everything better." Gus continued, and the elf boy gave in.

"Group hug!" Odd declared, and the gang wrapped their arms around each other in a friendly embrace.

There was no noise for a moment, and then Jeremy—who was in the center—wheezed. "Guys. I can't breathe." When it was responded to with a laugh, he added, "No, guys, I'm serious, _I can't breathe!_"

They separated, and when Jeremy placed his hand on his heart and began to huff, Odd placed his paw on his shoulder. "This is normal." He reassured the elf boy, a statement that was not well received.

* * *

A couple of days later, Anthea and Waldo were removing Aelita's bandages carefully. When they finished, they both cringed at the poor state of the sickly girl's shoulders. Anthea went to heal them, but small sparks of pink energy shocked her fingers before she could. She looked to Waldo, who got Aelita's attention and instructed her, "Take your medicine," He placed a pill in Aelita's hand, and she grabbed her cup of water and went to take a drink of it when she paused. She looked at it, remembered that Jeremy could control water, and held back tears of loneliness to take a drink and her medicine.

Anthea waited a couple of minutes and tried again, this time successful. The wounds transferred to the woman's fingers, and when she finished, her hands dripped with blood. She wrapped her own hands in bandages and motioned for Waldo to speak with her outside. The adults closed Aelita's door behind them, and then their daughter heard it click.

Aelita paused, then grabbed Jeremy's pajama shirt and threw it on over her shoulders and she leaned against the door to eavesdrop. She buttoned it as her parents spoke.

Their voices were hushed, and while Aelita couldn't really tell who was speaking because of it, she could hear and understand what they were saying. "I doubt that she'll ever fly again. The damage done to her shoulders is just too great. Even if the wings were to grow back, she'd never be able to support them enough to fly with them. That's right, you did tell me she learned how to fly… well, there's nothing we can do about it now. Even if we could go back in time, we wouldn't be able to change anything. She can go back in time, if you recall, but she can't use her powers, so I doubt she knows it."

Aelita stifled a laugh.

"But, dear, there's something that's worrying me even more than her wings… What is it? Well, you knew before this that her body regenerates her energy and the illness prevents her from holding on to it. But what's worrying me is that the energy is now leaking from her shoulders as well, and even now that the wounds are gone, the absence of her wings will continue to cause the leaking. If things progress at this rate…" What came next caused Aelita to widen her eyes in shock. "…she may never be able to hold onto enough energy to use the Kaliwanagan again."

She recoiled, stumbling over to her bed that she fell back on. She looked up to the ceiling and sighed. Aelita had told herself that she could get better, and when she could, she would be able to open the book that she'd entrusted Jeremy to give to her. That thought, of course, made her wonder about the book's location, but she didn't have the time to think about that.

Aelita couldn't help but wonder if she'd done something wrong. She'd have to die to cause a reset, and her death would have to include her powers as well. But if she caused a reset, there was no telling where she would end up and how it would affect the future. The only time she'd been able to reset she was sent to Saint Valentine's Day to make sure Jeremy joined the Xanadu.

Telling him not to, she realized, was the biggest mistake of her life and she would never make that mistake again.

Aelita concluded that there were two options; either live her life the way it was turning out or reset it and change everything about her life, most likely for the worst. The door clicked as it unlocked, and her parents entered again. Waldo smiled and handed Aelita a book, and Anthea dug around in her drawers. She placed a nightdress in Aelita's lap and went to remove the pajama shirt she wore, but Aelita clung to it. There was a bit of a fuss about it, but then Anthea gave in. Her parents hugged her and started to leave, but Aelita sat up and said, "Um, wait a minute…" They looked at her, and she looked between them. "When you went up to Jeremy and Lyna's house, did Lyna give you an envelope?"

"She gave me one, yes," Waldo nodded.

"Do you still have it?"

"No, I threw it out. Why?"

"_Daddy!_"

"What?"

"There were letters in there! Letters for me! And you threw it out? Why didn't you ask me if I knew what was inside?"

"Because I opened it and found out."

It came as a shock to Aelita, but she continued to interrogate her father. "You knew what was inside and you still threw it out?" She wanted to cry, but she refused to show weakness. "Why would you do that to me?"

"You don't need to have any more distractions than you already have, and any sign that you exist will be a threat." Waldo explained, and Aelita's parents left her room. She watched the door for a moment before taking a deep breath and opened the book sadly.

* * *

*Laugh if you will, but this is possible. _**Totally**_ possible. It happened to me once, and I was all like O_o; HOW?

**In case you couldn't tell, this part of Aelita's dream is the same part where she shocks Jeremy.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, final chapter before the epilogue. I had to end it. It was just getting way too long. Also, it's definitely becoming more and more apparent that Aelita's parents hurt more than help… Anyway… I like the text I used in Aelita's dream. I think I'll do that now when two voices are overlapping and saying the same thing, like if Yumi ever gets possessed by Amaterasu again or something. In other news, the third book (because it obviously can't end here) will either be much later this year or January 2011, mostly because my schoolwork takes so much time… *sigh.* But, fear not, I'm going to do some short stories that relate to Live Free or Die and All for Our Country every now and then, which will be up after the epilogue (obviously.) There's more information on my DeviantArt page. Figured I might as well tell you _now,_ so you can keep your eyes peeled…

This is another one of those moments that I only put in because it would be fun to imagine Jeremy doing. Which adds falling through the ceiling to the list that includes falling down the stairs half-naked.


	31. Chapter 31

_Chapter Thirty-One: Epilogue_

'De-r Ae-ita; 29-12-2009—

I w-t -ou to know th-t – onl- dat-d this le-er b-a-se I d-n-t eve- want - -or-et th-s mo-t.

This mo-ent not o-y b-gs me to a place that - will ref-e to go back to ever a-n once this is o-er, bu- it also rem-ds - of why I quit the X-adu; why - was one of the creatures saying all along that our existence -ould o-ly be revealed t- huma-s who could keep the secret. I don't ex-t a reply to come -rom yo- bec-se I'm -ure -omething horri- -ill h-p-en - this letter long before it reaches yo- b-t there's so-hing I have -o write down. If y-u do get th- l-tter, - -uess is that, if you reply at all, the text w-ll b- so dre-hed that I won't b- a-le to r-ad it. My text w-uld b- like t-at, too, if I h-'t cr-ed a-l of m- tear- - -our -ays ago. Any- the -int is that the g-er-ment -as made human saf-y their number o- pr-ty. Peo-e are still - -ut job- and the -onomy, b-t t-e- w-l -e - jobs a-d t-re -ill be -o economy if human s-y is-t sec-d.

B- tha- no- -th- I- te- y- - -ou d-n't -eed t- -no- - to -stan-. - ha- to be - bear- - bad news; I real- d-, -lie- - or not. I'd -ell - al- t- wonder-l th-s - -eep y-u fro- the -d thi-, a-d i- t-t -se, I- -ust - b- as -our –rent-. -ot -t you- pa-s a- ba- but -at th- ke- y- i- -our bed- -or a ma-ty of -our life-) - j- d-'t -ant y- to be -ried, b- this is not a t- - - - -e- -t fro- -

-he fi-st l- t- - -sse- -er the -nad- attac- the U- - - -aw -hat req-d -man- - -new -here magic- -tures li-d t- -ell -e govern- s- t- -uld b- 't-n int- cus-y.' - don't k- w- t-y - - the -prison- be-se m-t - -m a- ei-er expe- -thers o- -ng child- - one, - even in prop-a again- - Xana-, -an just- - -laugh- of mo-, c-en - teen-s- T- on- re- up- - - - -s - -he p-o- - -e - t- - iden- cr-e a- -ave pap-k th- -y -low- the- to - the -ture -h t-ir n-me - -. - -or ex- i- a -hole -ster -ouse—- is w- -uman- -ll - safe -e f-r c-res, usual- ref- t- - -r -o-s- - - - - - e- q-l-fy a- an arm-—- -overed - on- - -ew – t- c-tures - - -v- p-ork s-g th-t t-y'r- b-g ta-en -ay, th-y -n o- -a-e -e c-tures w-th t-ei- -es - t-e p-e-rk a- -e o- t- o-e-.

T-e -e a couple of bo-es, to—li-e a creat- h-s t- -e a- le-st 75% cr-atur- - -e taken in- cus-dy, which rules out -d and Yum-; and –he- a c-ature c-'t rely sol-ly o- m-ic - -e a creat-e- S- since U-h wo-d b- a ro-ng co-se -f Y-i ha-n't re-ed hi-, - -elies s-ely on -a-c to b- a c-ture- s- -e c-'t b- t-n -to cu-t-dy. A- th-n -us wo-d b- h-an -f he w-t a- t- ca- sp-ls- so he -lls into t- sa-e -gory- - -ink -hat -ight be -ause – cre-ure th- -as tak-n - cu-y by the –vern-nt spi-ed - - -o- your family- - -hey -on- ac-id-tally -ant to take you or your pa-nt- -to custo-

But -ven -en th-r- i- - huge -mount - crea-res l-t. Li-e, Mar- does- fit into -t ca-go-y, a-d he- -nly h-rt yo- i- y-u w- -king -or i- like tr-g to h-t -is w-e -nd kids -r if you we-e i-l-ing -is mo- Which brin-s -e t- w-at I -a-t -d w-nt ne- -t n-ed -o te-l y-u…

Th-y -ook h-m. H- -one. I -n't kno- w-ere he i- I d-n't know -f - al-ight, I -on't -ow anything. W- tri-d - -top -he- but t-y too- him an—ay- and the- we h- -o get -t of ou- -ouse -cause i- -e go-nme-t ca- ba-k a-d we were still -here, they'd ha- tak-n us, to- I don't know w-y they did it. – don- kn-w wh- -old th-m whe-e he was- b-t w-n I find o- I-l k-l the- A-d don- - th-nk I won't.

W- - fi-d ou- -o tol- the governme-t where - broth- was li-in- when th- -oo- hi- on C-istmas E-e, I'll -ll them wit- no -ercy.

No- Me-cy.

Si-erely,

L-na.'

That seems to be the end of the letter… huh? Upon closer inspection, there seems to be a note scribbled at the bottom of the letter. It seems to be childish and feminine, and it almost appears to be an address or phone number, but the text is too charred and otherwise badly damaged to read what it says clearly enough to understand the relevance. There seems to be no hint as to why it was burned besides the fact that it is addressed to Aelita.

* * *

A/N: You must hate me now. But, there are a couple of key words in the letter and afterwards that could tell you what happened to the letter. For example, the writer (I know who it is, you know who it is probably, but they shall remain anonymous) knows that something horrible would happen to the letter, and then it says that it had been charred.

I'll give you a hint. Basically, this is what happened a few days after Aelita left. I was going to do her diary, but I did that last time, so that would have been boring…

Stay tuned! YOOM-TAH! (Wigglytuff Moment)


End file.
